Draw the Line
by x-menobsessed26
Summary: Scott is with Jean and Alex is with his new girlfriend Lorna, but what happens when brother starts to fall for brother's girlfriend? Where will he draw the line? ON HIATUS
1. Truly, truly

**This fanfic takes place about a year after the fourth season. So far Jean and Scott are dating, Scott was recently named complete field leader (meaning no interference from Storm or Wolverine in his leading skills), and Alex has joined the institute. Alex is also a year younger than Scott in this fic, so he's graduated high school. I hope no one gets too OOC, but I'm apologizing now for if they do. I can tell you right now Alex isn't using any of his surfer talk in my fics. I just don't think like that. This WILL start out Jott and Lorlex, but that may change. Enjoy!**

Another blast sounded from behind him, but it was closer than the last one. Much closer. He tried to jump to the left knowing that it was coming down on top of him. It worked. Less than two feet away a bright red blast, casting a eerie similarity to his own blasts, hit the ground. His back his the shins of his brother who shot his own blasts at the floating robot in the air. Cyclops saw one right above his brother's head and shot at it. It burst into flames and fell to the ground.

The buzzer sounded meaning the end of their session. Both brothers were drenched head to toe in sweat and exhaustion was clearly wearing on them in match.

"Is it just me, or are those things actually getting smarter?" Alex, codename "Havok", asked the older teen.

Scott mentally rolled his eyes, "Alex, don't you dare start on your machines-will-take-over rant again. I don't think I could handle another one."

"It's happening man! Nothing will stop it!"

"I knew letting you hang out with Forge was a bad idea."

Alex playfully hit Scott's arm, "He's cool. Much cooler than you now. What's with you? You get named total field leader and become Mister Statue Summers or something?"

Scott swatted at the back of his head, but Alex knew it was coming, "Shut up. I have to do-"

"What's best for the team. Yeah, we know, but the team needs you to lose some of that stick."

"What stick?"

"The one that's shoved up your ass."

Alex took off running and laughing with Scott in hot pursuit nearly running over Rogue in the process.

"SUMMERS!"

* * *

><p>Scott closed the door to his bedroom, and leaned up against the hard wood door. Was he really that stoic? No, he couldn't be. Someone would have told him.<p>

He walked over to his wardrobe and pulled out a pair of sweat pants and a loose T-shirt with a hole in the hem. _What if I really am that hard on them? Even _I _can't remember the last time I laughed. When was that? It can't be that too far away from now._

While he was running over the timeline of his laughter in his head a knock sounded at the door, four fast raps, "Come in Jean."

She did, "Hey, did you hear? We're getting a new, um, mutant tomorrow."

He turned to face his girlfriend of a little over a year, "What grade is he/she in?"

"_She_ isn't. Before you say anything, no she didn't drop out. She's 18, but she's been gradually losing control of whatever control she managed to develop."

"Losing control huh? What kind of powers are we talking about here, Jean?" Scott asked sitting at the end of his bed.

Jean joined him and looked at him with an unreadable look on her face, "She has powers like Magneto, but not quite at that degree."

"Do you know anything else I should know? Like a name possibly?"

"Unfortunately she didn't give a name for fear of being overheard. It seems the Brotherhood and Acolytes are after her. All she said was you'll know her when you see her," Jean smiled and straddled her boyfriend's lap.

"C'mon Jean. I just got out of the Danger Room."

She fake pouted, "So you don't want me?"

He sighed. Always her "you don't really love me, do you?" argument. One of these times he was just going to tell her no. "Of course I want you Jean, you're my girlfriend, but I'm exhausted and I'm going to have to meet this new mutant tomorrow and I don't want to look like I got out of a wind tunnel when I greet her."

She sighed and slid off his lap, "You're right. I'm sorry. It's just, I ran into Taryn at the mall yesterday and her and Duncan seem to have gotten together, and she was all to willing to describe every intimate detail of her sex life. I mean, I know you don't like me, but there are some lines you don't cross."

He stiffened hearing about their exes, "I thought we agreed that if they ever approach us we turn around and run for it."

"I didn't exactly have a chance in the Bayville mall at the food court at high noon."

He laughed as he could only imagine the chaos surrounding his girlfriend and ex-girlfriend, and the look on her face as she waited for her ex-best friend to get done. Something sharp poked him in the stomach, "OW!"

Her finger, sharp with a freshly manicured nail, poked him in the stomach again, "It's not funny. She's enough to drive the Professor to make her think she's a brain-dead wino the rest of her days."

He laid back and pulled his girlfriend down to his chest with him, "I know she is. I dated her remember?"

"Yes, I do. I remember how jealous I was too."

"You never had anything to be jealous of, love. It was always you and it always will be."

"Do you promise?"

He sighed, "I promise, Red."

"Truly, truly?"

"Truly, truly. Can I sleep now?…OW! Jean! What did I say?"

**I know it was short, but please review and let me know what you think.**


	2. Lorna Dane

She stepped off of the bus into the pouring rain. The people standing around her looked hostile. Thank goodness for her massive coat with the hood, for more than one reason. Everyone else was scrambling for cover. She smiled to herself, knowing full well no one could see her face. Her worn sneakers were filling with water, and her legs were freezing with her seen-better-days Daisy Duke shorts. She picked up her duffel bag from the compartment of the bus where they were kept.

She reached into her back pocket and pulled out a phone number written on a scrap of notebook paper and a quarter. Walking into the booth of a payphone, she dialed the number with shivering fingers. Two rings later someone picked up, "Good morning. This is the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters, Jean Grey speaking. How may I help you?"

Her voice shook as she said, "Um…yes, I called yesterday. Professor Charles Xavier told me to call when I arrived in…Bayville."

"Yes, I will let him know you are here. Can you please hold for one moment?"

_Do I have a choice?_ She thought as her knees started knocking together. How can September be so cold? She looked over her shoulders. She didn't see them. Thank God!

"Hello?"

"Yes, um, Professor Xavier, I just got off of the bus, and you told me to call when I did so-"

"I'll send someone to pick you up. You don't need to worry. You'll be safe soon."

_If only he knew._ "Thank you."

"No need for thanks." He hung up. She put the phone in it's cradle and looked out at the street covered in water. This was a lot of rain for one storm. She decided to stay in the phone booth until whoever was coming for her arrived. It was only then that she realized she didn't tell him where she was. How would they know where to find her?

* * *

><p>Scott walked down the stairs with Jean hanging on his thoughts. He couldn't help the annoyance he felt toward her recently. Every time she started to speak now, he cringed away from her. He used to think of her voice as music, but now it's like an evil mantra. When did he start feeling like that? He loved Jean! Before he could contemplate the amount of denial that sounded like the Professor wheeled into the foyer, "Scott! I need you to get the students to behave like they have some sort of manners this morning. As I trust you've already heard, we have a new mutant coming, and she sounds quite…skittish."<p>

He waved a hand dismissively, "No problem Professor. Knowing the rumor tree around here, they'll be quiet and nice around her for a while so they can learn secrets. You _know_ Kitty and Kurt will eat her right up."

The older man chuckled, "Yes they will, but I want you to make sure. I'm not so sure how some of them will react when they find out some of her deepest secrets. She hasn't said anything, but I have a sneaking suspicion this young woman is hiding more than just a mutant power."

"Like what?"

He sighed, "A dark past full of memories she doesn't want to come to terms with, but whose scars she wears on her like a cloak of deep emotion."

"Sounds like Rogue."

Now they both laughed, "Yes, it kind of does. You never know. Rogue may finally find herself a friend."

"Doubt it," a new voice to the conversation said from behind Scott.

Scott jumped around and faced Rogue, "Jeez! Warn someone why don't you?"

"Because it's fun to see you have a heart attack."

_Fun for who?_ Scott thought sarcastically as he walked to the kitchen with a smirking Rogue following.

When he walked into the kitchen, all morning chatter stopped and all heads turned to face him eager. Those faces quickly filled with disappointment upon realizing it was only Scott.

"Alright everybody, the Professor wants you all on your best behavior when the new mutant gets here. From the sound of things, he doesn't want any of you scaring her, so please don't speak to her unless spoken to or asked to from Professor Xavier. Got it?"

They all grumbled their unhappy 'got it's and 'yeah, we know's. Satisfied, Scott walked over to where Jean was sitting next to Alex with an extra bowl of apple cinnamon oatmeal. Scott took his seat and Jean pushed the bowl at him, "What are you two talking about?"

"How to get out of your Danger Room session tonight," Alex said licking his fingers clean of the sugary remnants his doughnut.

"Really? If you develop a sudden life threatening illness or you break your leg, then you can get out of the Danger Room session."

Alex pouted, "Why can't you just let us off for one day?"

"Because our enemies don't decide not to attack so they can watch the new episode of Dancing With the Stars."

"No, but I bet they would for American Idol."

He resisted the urge to throw his boiling hot oatmeal on his brother as breakfast continued as it always did at the Xavier Institute. In chaos.

* * *

><p>She had curled up into a small ball in the corner of the phone booth when a black Chevy Impala pulled up to the curb. She stiffened not knowing who it was. Someone got out, a man by his stance, and walked over to the phone booth where she was curled up. She tried to summon her powers to get a hold on the metal of the payphone but she was too distracted by the cold she was feeling to really move. The phone booth opened and a gloved hand came down in front of her face.<p>

She looked up at the man, "Who are you?"

"My name is Logan. The Professor sent me to find you."

She took his hand and stood on shaky legs. Logan reached down and picked up her duffel bag for her. She walked over to the back seat of the car and got in. Logan shoved her bag into the passenger seat when he got into the driver's seat and began to drive.

"Kid, you don't need to hide yourself behind your clothes. Take off the coat and gloves."

"With all due respect sir, I refuse."

"Why?"

"You'll see soon enough."

* * *

><p>Scott walked over to the foyer and sat in a stained armchair. A food fight, lots of empty threats, and angry punches later, Jean, Ororo, Scott, Hank, and Charles had finally gotten it broken up and cleaned up. Charles was currently working to find out how much it was going to cost to get everything fixed up, Hank was fixing up students that had gotten hurt in the infirmary, Ororo was <em>still<em> cleaning up here and there where she saw fit, and Jean was taking a shower. Scott had already taken his and now he wanted two seconds to close his eyes and relax.

That's when he heard the front door open and shut. Mentally cursing he opened his eyes to see Logan handing a duffel bag to someone dressed much like Kurt was when he first arrived. Scott stood up and walked a few steps forward and waited in silence for a couple of second because he knew that-yep, sure enough. The Professor wheeled into the room right at that moment followed by Storm.

"Good morning. Let us all make our way to my office so we can talk without as many ears pressed to the walls," Professor Xavier chuckled as he looked up the stairs where Kurt and Kitty were "just talking".

They all walked the distance to his private office. Charles sat behind the desk while Ororo and Logan flanked him from each side. Scott closed the door and leaned up against it, just incase someone tried to open it. The lock was broken after all.

That left her in the middle of the room with four sets of eyes staring at her, Professor Xavier's with compassion, Logan with apprehension, Ororo with understanding, and Scott with genuine curiosity. Scott just knew they were all thinking of the other mutants they had all acquired over the years and what had come from them. They had never known what to expect, and in all honesty, this time wouldn't prove to be any different.

"So child, do you have a name? You must have a name," Professor Xavier asked.

"Yes sir. My name is Lorna Dane."

"Well Lorna, would you mind showing us who you are?"

"Actually I would."

"I see. Lorna, there are other people that have been in the same position you are in, afraid to show the world who they really are. Some people because of the things they can do, others for fear of what they look like and how others will treat them. Ms. Dane, that is how we at the Institute are different. We don't mock, we don't fear, we embrace. We embrace who we are and we embrace who one another is. We have to or a part of us, the part that makes us still human, dies. Do you understand?"

"Yes…but I don't feel comfortable with this."

"Not many do, Lorna, but you will grow into it. It's like a baby tooth. You have to lose the younger Lorna in able to grow into the stronger, more mature Lorna you can be. You went through high school and were not home-schooled. You told me you developed your mutation at 16, and you're 18 now. Is your mutation so strange that only those who now know of mutants can't see it. There are no labels here."

They were left in silence for a full minute as Lorna turned the words over in her mind. She first pulled off her gloves revealing creamy white hands with green fingernails. She then slowly took off the jacket, unbuttoning it first and then quickly ripping it off like an old Band-Aid, revealing to the first time in a long time who she really was.

Lorna felt naked without her large coat, and strangely it felt good. It felt good to feel her long hair flow in the small draft in the room again, and have the light hit her face full on. It felt good to be free. It felt good to be Lorna.

In front of Lorna, Ororo, Logan, and Charles didn't looked shocked, but pleased. Scott was in awe. He prayed to God that it didn't show on his face, but he couldn't be certain. She was so beautiful, at least from behind. She had an athletic body with soft curves and flawless creamy white skin. Her bright green hair was down to the middle of her back and it was slightly curly. It was only then did he mentally kick himself and was filled with ultimate disappointment. Jean. He was dating Jean. If he was to be a proper boyfriend, he couldn't look at other girls that way, but my God! There had to be _some_ exception with women as gorgeous as her.

"I'm sure that wasn't so bad. Lorna, my name is Professor Charles Xavier, but I assume you already guessed as much. I am a supreme telepath, and you will hear me project thoughts into your head every so often. It is a little strange at first, but everything here is not so normal. You'll adjust.

"You've already meet Logan. He has a healing factor, which allows him to heal from any injury he can receive, including the constant poisoning he receives from the indestructible adamantium bonded with his skeleton, including his bone claws, three in each hand. In battle or in training sessions you will hear him referred to and are expected to call him Wolverine. It gets to the point where you will occasionally here people call each other by their codenames anyway.

"The woman to my right is Ororo Munroe. Her codename is Storm with good reason. She is a weather witch, which means she can summon up the slightest breeze or most ferocious hurricane in the blink of an eye. She doesn't change the weather at will most of the time, however, as it can cause severe damage to the Earth.

"The man behind you is Scott Summers, codename: Cyclops. Again the codename is not without it's reason as he can shoot red optic beams out of his eyes. His powers are uncontrollable, contained only by the specialized glasses he wears. I don't suggest stealing them for a prank as they are essential for his daily life, and could cause the building and anyone within shooting range harm.

"Lorna, welcome to the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters. Now, how about we get you settled into your new home?"

All she could do was nod as she was still trying to absorb all of the information he had just fed her. That woman could really control the _weather_? That was nothing compared to manipulating metal things.

Lorna turned around to get her first look at Scott, the only other one she hadn't seen yet, and her breath caught in her throat. Good green goblins, that man was stunning! His lean, perfectly muscled chest and strong arms at his sides made him look like a formidable foe, and his hair a little shaggy, in need of a cut, was absolutely adorable. Slapping herself awake from her daydream, she had to remind herself to focus on settling into her new home and away from her past as long as she could.

Charles looked at a file folder Lorna could only assume was filled with papers relating to her, though none of it could be personal yet seeing as how they had only just learned her name. Probably future academics and such.

Scott looked at the young woman staring at him and then back at his mentor and smiled. He couldn't help it. She was so god damned cute! He hoped his girlfriend didn't see her for a while or she would have suspicions. Jean always did. And the fact that his girlfriend is a telepath couldn't really help. He had only looked at one other girl while on a date with Jean. So what if Jean is his girlfriend! She was talking about boring nonsense shoes, and Elizabeth, he later learned her name was, was gorgeous.

"Ah, yes. Lorna you will be sharing a room with Jean Grey."

Scott decided karma is a real bitch.

**What do you think? Did you like it? Please review and tell me what you think.**


	3. Should I stay or should I go?

**Okay, so there's a little…verbal fighting in this chapter, and I'll try not to go to OOC, but I know it's going to get to that point. Please try to understand however, that I firmly believe in the show that they only showed the best of the people, and barely showed them at their worst, so this is a little of what wouldn't have been seen in the show. There's also some swearing in this chapter and I apologize for those that don't appreciate that. Enjoy!**

**Oh, and I've also changed up the bios of Scott and Lorna from what is typical of the comics. Scott is a little closer to normal, while Lorna's is a little dark. Forgive me. Lorna herself is a little dark in this chapter. Eventually the Lorna we all know and love will come to be, but you have to give me time to work my magic. Without further interruption, the magic!**

Ororo walked up the stairs with Lorna in tow. Lorna was carrying her duffel bag, and a load of textbooks that she would have to study up on to be able to teach them. Great. She got out of school so she wouldn't have to study these anymore. They walked down one of the wings lined with doors upon doors that were all identical, except for a number engraved on the doorknob. Thank God for that little grace or she would be lost. They stopped in front of door number 16 and Ororo knocked, "Jean?"

"Come in," came the answer. They both walked in and Jean was laying on her bed reading her own textbooks. "You must be Lorna."

She could only nod. Jean was very pretty. She had long red hair and a true smile that felt a lot more homey than all of the fakes she got wherever she went.

"I am going to leave the two of you alone to get settled. Good luck Lorna," Ororo said with another kind-hearted smile as she closed the door.

Jean sat cross legged on her bed, "As you probably already guessed, the empty side of the room over there is yours."

Lorna nodded and walked over to her wardrobe to start hanging her few pairs of clothes up. She made sure she blocked the view Jean would have had of her wardrobe. No need for the pretty girl who obviously comes from a rich lifestyle to see her shabby one.

"So what are you going to teach?"

Lorna sighed, "Whatever they give me."

"You don't have a preference?"

"Should I?"

"I just thought maybe you liked one subject more than another."

"I like to learn. What I learn is entirely up to whoever gives me the material. I also like to teach and enable others to learn. What I teach is once again, entirely up to whoever gives me the material. Preference? Coming from my life, your preference is to live another day. Understand?"

"Sure."

_Of course you don't. You've never had to live like I've had to, never been afraid to say a word, never been afraid to blink to soon, breathe too fast, think too hard. Of course you don't understand. You're not me._ Lorna thought bitterly.

_Umm…I _can _hear you._

Lorna whirled around, "What the _hell_ are you doing inside my head?"

Jean cringed, "I'm not 'inside your head'. You were projecting your thoughts, and they were pretty loud, for a telepath anyway."

Lorna rolled her eyes and went back to putting her underwear in her bureau.

"What did you mean with what you…thought at me?"

Lorna whirled around again, this time with fury clear in her eyes, "Let's get one thing straight Ms. Grey. I don't like people. Anybody. Ever. I just don't. I especially don't like _nosy_ people. I like to keep my past to myself. You don't see me asking you a bunch of questions. I don't like you because you remind me of the stuck up bitches in my old town. You don't like me because I'm new, you don't like change, and you see me as an uncontrollable threat and frankly I don't give a DAMN! Keep your words to yourself, leave my things alone, and stay the HELL out of my head. Kapish?"

With that, Lorna stomped out of the room to find some place in the building to cool off, and left Jean wondering just what they were all in for.

* * *

><p>Scott was laying on his bed with his arms crossed behind his head thinking. What was the fearless leader of the mutant team, the X-men, thinking about? The latest threats between the populations of mutants and humans? No. New maneuvers in the Danger Room and flight simulators to try out? Not even close. Jean? Closer. His mind was occupied with the new girl, Lorna Dane. He couldn't get her out of his head. He was trying to decipher what made her so beautiful to him, and what made Jean Grey, the woman every man got on their knees and begged for a date from, so…not Lorna to him.<p>

A knock at his door barely registered in his mind. A knock the second time hit him like cold water in the face. He jumped up and tore the door open, "Sorry Jean! I was lost in-"

"Thought? Yeah, you seem to be doing that a lot now."

He moved aside so his fiery girlfriend could come in, "You didn't…you know…"

"Read your mind? Of course not! I have my boundaries, my limits, unlike that spoiled brat _Lorna_ _Dane_!" Jean spat her name as if it was rotten.

"Wh-What did she do?"

"She had the nerve to blow up in my face for me asking simple questions. I was just trying to be nice and get to know my roommate and she completely lost it. She started yelling about questions, nosy people, and bitches. She said I reminded her of the bitches she knows! Me!"

"Calm down Jean!"

"How can I calm down? She called me a-"

"Look, I know what she called you, and I hate to say it, but maybe she had her reasons," Scott shrugged as he changed his shirt. His other one was still sweaty from a Danger Room session he had.

Jean gasped, "How can you say that? No one has the right to call someone else that! I'm your girlfriend! Are you saying I was acting like a-"

"No, no. Not at all. All I'm trying to say is…do you remember when you first met me?"

Jean tried to think back and looked at him sheepishly, "Actually, I don't."

Scott sighed, "Well, I was skittish. I was afraid of people, like they were going to turn on me. I was afraid of getting hurt. You told me she has someone watching her, like they're out to get her maybe? Maybe she's scared of being found."

Jean crossed her arms, "Well since you know all of the answers Mr. Therapist, why don't you go and talk to her?"

Scott brushed past her, "Fine, I will."

Jean opened her mouth to comment, but Scott closed the door before she could. He walked away to find Lorna with a sneaky smile on his face.

* * *

><p>Lorna looked out at the sky and pulled her knees in tighter to her chest. She knew she would have to apologize to Jean when she saw her again, it was the right thing to do, but in all honesty she didn't want to. Something about Jean's nosiness made Lorna want to hit her. Lorna was a very private person. A tear slipped down Lorna's cheek. <em>This was a mistake. I could never belong here, not with my past, not with <em>them_ after me. A huge mistake. I need to talk to the Professor on getting out of here._

Someone sat down next to Lorna and she jumped, barely suppressing a squeal of surprise, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

Lorna looked at who it was and had to stop her mouth from dropping open. Scott Summers was sitting next to her. What did the field leader want? Probably to talk to her about training or something.

"Umm…so, what do you want to talk to me about, Mr. Summers?"

"Uh, Lorna, you can call me Scott, first of all. You're going to teach here so you can call me by my first name. Second, did you…yell at Jean?"

Lorna mentally groaned. Of course Jean would tell somebody, "Yeah, I did."

After a few seconds, Scott knew she wasn't going to elaborate for him, "Why?"

"Because I'm a very private person. I don't like people picking around in my business, and she was asking too many questions."

Scott nodded, "Fair enough, but something you'll learn about being here is that nothing stays private for very long, no matter how bad you want it to. This mansion is a big place filled with teenagers that…haven't had a past that…calls for secrecy. Do you know what I'm saying?"

"Yes, I know what you're saying. Now let me talk. I'm not staying here. I'm going to tell Professor Xavier that it was a nice offer, but I can already tell that this place isn't for me, and I'm very sorry for wasting your time. Thank you for talking Mist-Scott, but I have-"

Scott's head whirled around. She was so startled her sentence dropped, "You're giving up?"

Lorna thought about that, "Yes, I guess you could say I am. I've been giving up and running away my entire life so that plan of attack kind of works for me."

"I'm sure it would work for anybody."

"Then why don't you use it for a change."

"Because I don't need to run."

"Why not?"

Scott sighed, "Look Lorna, I don't have a super bright past either, but I've found my reasons to stay, to live. If I was out there running like a part of me wanted to a few years ago, I would still be dead, but in a living body. I think that's what you're doing. You're so used to being dead that when you get this chance to live, you're scared of it. People are naturally curious, Lorna. That means that people are going to ask you questions. You can either yell at them like you did with Jean and make them begin to dislike you, politely dodge the question and make them leery of you, or give an answer and make them satisfied with, maybe, a few other things attached. Either way, it's your call. I'm not going to try to keep you here, but you need to find a place to settle down. Otherwise you'll die."

Lorna laughed, but it was void of humor, "Do you really think anyone would care what happens to me? None of you really know me so that counts you out. I have no family, and no friends. I have no one to care for me. Does it really make a difference whether I live or die?"

Tears started making fast tracks down her face. Scott was stunned. Did she really think no one cared? She continued before he could speak.

"I mean, it's not like if I just walk off tonight and get hit by a car I would get a lot of mourners at a funeral. Even if I did get a few, in a couple weeks time they wouldn't even remember my name. You said if I keep running I'll die. I'm already dead, Scott. I always have been. Coming here was a mistake."

Scott cupped her chin and moved her face to face his, and wiped her tears away with his thumbs, "These tears are proof that you aren't dead yet Lorna. If you can cry, you can hurt. If you can hurt, you can feel. If you can feel, you can live. We need to find that piece of you that is still alive and bring her out."

"I can't Scott! You don't know what my past holds!"

"Then tell me."

"What?"

"Tell me. If you're so afraid of you past, share it with me. Show me what's scaring you. We can work through it together," Scott said holding her face in his hands. "I won't let you go through this alone."

"You first."

"Huh?"

"You. First. You tell me what made you "come back to life". Tell me _your_ past and _your_ reasons. Then I'll tell you mine. Deal?"

"No deal. We work through it together, remember?"

"Meaning?"

"You'll see. Feel free to speak up"

Scott dropped his hands from her face and turned toward the gate. He seemed to be studying it. Lorna thought he was waiting for her to say something when he spoke up.

"Like I told you before, my story isn't a happy one either. I was born in Anchorage, Alaska to Katherine Ann Summers and Christopher Summers. My little brother, Alexander Summers, was born in Honolulu, Hawaii a year later. My father was a pilot, and my mom gave up her job after Alex and I were born so she could stay at home with us when we needed her.

"On my tenth birthday we decided to fly up to Alaska from our new house in Pennsylvania for a picnic. It was…really fun. It was the four of us, not the three of us like it usually was. We were just getting ready to leave when something happened to the plane. The back of the plane caught on fire. My mother stepped into action right away while my dad tried to hold the plane in the sky. The communication radio was broken so we couldn't call for help. It would have been too late anyway. My mom managed to save one parachute from where they were stored in the back. She strapped me into it and put Alex in my arms. Just before she shoved us out of the plane I heard her tell us the last thing I would ever hear come from the mouth of my mother. She said she loved us.

"Alex and I fell out of the plane and I held onto him as tight as I could. He reached one of his hands up and pulled the cord. We started falling and falling. I couldn't figure out why we were not only not slowing down, but going faster than we were before. That's when I saw pieces of ash fall in front of my face. I looked up and saw that our parachute had caught on fire. I heard an explosion and knew then that I would never see my parents again. I looked down into the face of my little brother and knew he was the only one in the world I had left. I had to save him.

"I don't remember hitting the ground. I don't remember anything in the year after that day. I was in a coma for a year. When I finally woke up, they told me that I had hit my head really hard. It had caused some brain injuries. They also told me the worst thing I had ever heard in my life. They confirmed that my parents were dead, but they also told me that my little brother, little Alex, was also dead.

"I cried for days while they ran the final tests to confirm that I was healed and I could leave the hospital. When I left the hospital I was shipped to an orphanage in Nevada. I lived for the next three years in that orphanage. When I was 14 I started getting huge migraines. I didn't know why though, until a few months later when I was leaving school one day and I looked at the orphanage door. A bright red blast shot from my eyes and blasted the door right off of the hinges. From then on whenever I opened my eyes I blew something away. The only way I could stop it was to keep my eyes closed. I thought I was going to be blind forever.

"Then one day I was sitting on my bed, reading a book in brail when a knock came at the door. One of my roommates got up to get it and the head of the orphanage asked to see me downstairs. I came down the stairs and I heard a voice I didn't recognize with a British accent. Then I heard the voice of a woman I had also never heard before, obviously with the man.

"The head of the orphanage took my hand and guided me down the rest of the stairs thinking I couldn't do it for myself. He told me that the man wanted to adopt me and take me to an Institute in New York. I wanted to feel bad because I had to go to an Institute, I thought maybe for the blind or something, but I felt so happy. Someone wanted to adopt me. Everyone else had rejected me because they used to force me to open my eyes so they could see the damage. I guess you know how that would have gone.

"I got my things and got in a car and drove off to my new home. They didn't say anything for what felt like forever when the man finally spoke up. He told me he was Professor Charles Xavier and the woman with him was Ororo Munroe. They were taking me to the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters. They said that I had a gift, a mutation. I couldn't believe that I was special, but apparently I was. When we got there, I was introduced to a man called Logan. A couple weeks later the Professor told me to come with him. We drove to a building that smell like a hospital. When we went inside they had a lengthy conversation. I sat in a chair the entire time. Eventually a doctor started talking to me. I won't go into too much detail but they put a pair of glasses on my face and told me to open my eyes. When I did I could see and nothing was getting blown up. Everything was red though, but at the time I didn't care. I could see. They said it was ruby quartz that could hold my blasts in place.

"When I was 15, I was sitting in a hammock outside in the summer when Logan told me to get inside. We had found another mutant. They had been on the lookout for a while, but none were active yet, so they said. We drove off to meet our new house guest. She went by the name of Jean Grey. She was so beautiful when I met her, she still is, and we went to the Institute. She fit right in at Bayville, which is where we went to school. She became one of the top soccer players at the school, made a tons of friends, and dated the quarterback of the football team.

"Years went by, we gained more mutants, the X-men grew, and I found a family. I found reasons to live. When all of those friends that Jean thought she had turned on her because she has her gifts, we were all there for each other. I was recently named overall field leader of the X-men, I'm dating Jean, and everything is looking good for now. That's my story. What's yours?"

Lorna suppressed another groan, "Jean is your girlfriend."

"Yeah, why?"

"That's why you're up here? To see if you can find out what she couldn't and why I blew up at her?"

Scott shook his head, "No, no. Not at all. Like I said Lorna, I care. I don't want you to make the wrong decision. I was scared just like you are right now. I didn't know where my place was. I just want you to know where yours is. Now, a deal is a deal. Do you have any more questions before you tell me your story."

"Can you…tell me about the others later? I haven't met anybody else, and I want to know what I'm in for. I like to know what's at the bottom before I jump."

"Of course."

"Alright. My story is a lot less rosy than yours. It starts with a one night stand at a bar. My mother met my father. My mother was a slut, a hooker. She'd sleep with any guy willing to pay her a few bucks. My father took her up on it. Why he did will come into play later, but right now this is more how than why. My mother ended up pregnant with me. She wasn't very happy about it, but decided she wouldn't let a baby stop her from living the life she was used to.

"I was born in the truest of true ghettos. I was born in the shittiest house in the most pathetic cul-de-sac in the most corrupt and overrun town in the United States. Many people say I shouldn't have survived in the pregnancy at all, let alone turn out like I did. I've baffled doctors as to how I did as of today. My mother had continuous sex, did drugs, and was drunk on alcohol all the time while she was pregnant with me. She was high while she was in labor so she didn't feel a thing. A few of the neighborhood gang members had to birth me. Hell, one of the gang member's wives had to name me. She named me Lorna. She didn't give me a middle name.

"I was raised by my mother in that house. She got protection from the gang in that cul-de-sac and the house as long as she slept with them when they wanted it. The town I lived in was packed with gangs. In theory there was a police, but they're more corrupt than the politicians. Vetch: the town where the right amount of cash will get you whatever you want whenever you want it. The gang that protected my mother was called the Venom. Their rivals were the Fangs, the Scales, the Claws, and the Sharks. Each gang "owned" some piece of the town and if you got on the wrong side you were toast.

"My education as a child consisted of weapons training, grand theft auto, robbery, and vandalism. I never read a book or watched a television set. I'd never heard of such things. My mother was still hard into drugs, alcohol, and sex. My mother once sat me down and told me never to drink the alcohol in the house or use the drugs, because they were hers. She didn't even care that they would kill me. If you would have walked into our house the only furniture you would have seen throughout the entire two-story building would have been a worn out bed in my mother's bedroom. There were vodka, whiskey, tequila, beer, wine, you name it bottles scattered all over the floor. The counters in the kitchen were used for her cocaine, heroine, marijuana, cigarettes, LSD, again, you name it all over.

"One day I was eight years old, still wearing clothes that fit when I was four, and had just come in from scavenging around garbage cans for a piece of stale bread, when I sat on the floor, my back to the floor and watched a spider make her web. You found what kind of entertainment you could when you were trying to block out the gunshots and screams from outside. The spider was almost done with her web when I heard a little crash from behind me. I looked and my mom had dropped her crack pipe on the floor, but that's not what scared the hell out of me. It was the look on her face. It was like she was trying to scream, but couldn't quite get it out. It was like she was trying to breathe but couldn't. I didn't know what was going on. I ran for the staircase and watched what happened. About two seconds after I reached the stairs she fell to the ground. I knew then that she was dead, and I swore never to touch a drug.

"I decided to run away. The gang members in our part of town would either shoot me on the spot or make me have sex with them if they caught me. They would find my mother dead eventually. I didn't have anything to pack so I climbed out of a window, not bothering to use the door, and ran for the hills, hiding in bushes and behind large garbage cans as I made my way out of hell. I eventually ran to a school. I didn't know it was a school, because I had never been to one, but I saw children about my age going in there and looking happy, so I thought it was somewhere safe. I walked into the office and the secretary looked at me with a strange expression. She had never seen me before, AND my hair was green. Long story short they figured out I was an orphan not registered anywhere so they put me in the local orphanage and I got an education. I started out slow, in preschool, but I charge up the ranks of school fast and I graduated from college at the age of 15. That's when he found me.

"He was wearing the most ridiculous outfit I had ever seen, with a purple cape and purple and red helmet, he looked like a bad comic book villain. He called himself Magneto, and he said he was my father. I told him I didn't believe him, but he showed me a DNA test. It was true. He took me in and kept me out of sight from the rest. I heard from that little sneak, Pyro, that he slept with my mother all of those years ago because his wife had just died and left him with two children he didn't know how to raise. He decided to put his daughter, Wanda, in an asylum and take his son, Pietro, with him. I never met Wanda in person, but she got my letters I secretly wrote her, and I got hers. She was a very troubled soul. I felt bad for her.

"Eventually at the age of 16 my powers manifested like they should have. Father put me out into the battles. One got too strong though. I had to change the magnetic field around a few people in the hopes that changing it would send their brains into overload trying to recalculate what was happening. I had to do something to try and hold them off so my father and his team could arrive. There I was sending the fields surrounding them back and forth and back and forth. The strain eventually became too much and I passed out. When I woke up, Colossus was tending to me. He was in his metal form and I saw my reflection in his metal. I looked in a mirror and got the same answer. The strain left not only the normal, for me anyway, hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes green, but my lips, fingernails and toenails joined them. I found out that when they found me the skin on my arms and chest was also green. Theoretically, if I pushed myself too hard, I could turn completely green. The strain would probably kill me first however.

"I started to learn though, what my father had against Colossus, who I learned by the name of Peter and Gambit, who I called Remy. Sabretooth and Pyro were there by choice. Those two were not. It was then that I realized what kind of a man my father truly was. He was a terrorist. As if that wasn't enough, my powers began growing at a rate I couldn't stop. I ran away. I've been gone from them for about a year now, and I don't know what has happened regarding them. I heard about this place from a girl named Jubilation Lee. She told me that I should come here, so I did. Now I have to hide out from the Acolytes and the Brotherhood because he will try to get me back, dead or alive. Like I said, my story is a lot less rosy than yours. Be happy with the past you had, because I have no reason to live anymore."

"Yes you do! That's what I've been trying to tell you. I know your past sucks, I just realized that now more than I would have ever guessed, but there's a way to look past that. Stay here with us. If you go outside of these walls, they will find you faster than if you stay here with us."

Lorna looked away, "I don't want to be a burden."

"You won't be a burden."

Lorna sighed and thought about it, "Okay, I'll stay on two conditions."

"One?"

"You don't tell anyone about my past. I'll tell them when I want to tell them."

Scott nodded, "Fair. What's the second one?"

"You tell me the name of the guy who looks like the blue devil from _Easy A."_

**What did you think? _Please_ review and tell me. I'm craving feedback!**


	4. Introductions part 1

**This is my warning for this chapter. Nothing productive happens here. This is Scott keeping deal 2 from last chapter, and telling Lorna about the others enrolled at Xavier's. He's also going to start telling her about their enemies and some past battles. Not to mention the toll it took on all of them. Nothing too special happens here except for some more "bonding" for the two of them for this is part 1 of the introductions. Part 2 will be Lorna actually meeting everybody at the dinner of a lifetime, but for now, have fun as Lorna meets the other X-men. If you don't want to be re-introduced to the other characters, then please skip over this chapter and I will have part 2 up soon. Thanks!**

"When Ororo was taking me upstairs we passed a blue and fuzzy…um…"

"Demon?"

Lorna blushed, "I know he isn't, but-"

"His name is Kurt Wagner. He has a physical mutation, like your green hair, and the ability to teleport. His codename is Nightcrawler. When I say that the mansion has ears to every door and wall, he's one of them. Beware of him and Kitty Pryde. They'll find out all of your secrets with no effort," Scott warned, laying back against the shingles.

"Did you say Kitty?"

"Yeah, her real name is Katherine Pryde, but she goes by Kitty. Her hair is brown, eternally pulled back into a ponytail, her favorite word is 'like', and she can usually be found knee deep in trouble. She looks like any regular American teenager you might see walking down the streets. She can pass through solid objects, like the ground, doors, walls. You will eventually get used to her and Kurt popping in on you. Her codename is Shadowcat. Kurt doesn't have a roommate, but Kitty does. Her name is Rogue."

"Rogue?"

"Yes. She won't tell us her real name, but I think that's just because she doesn't want to look like an idiot for not remembering it herself. She's very antisocial. She's also kind of hard to miss. Her hair is brown with white bangs, she's always dressed gothic, and she's southern. Kurt is also her foster brother. Before you ask, you'll learn more about that later. Her codename is the same as the name we were given to use. Her power is uncontrollable. She can absorb your thoughts, memories, and mutant powers by touching you. Unfortunately, that makes her life hard as she can never touch anyone. I think that may be why she's gothic. In a last attempt to keep people away from her."

Lorna looked up at birds flying around in the sky above them, "That's so sad. I'd say I could never do it, but I guess I wouldn't really have a choice would I?"

Scott looked at her, "No, you wouldn't. Hank keeps saying that he'd like to make her some kind of serum to take away that ability, but she keeps denying it. I think she's scared that it would permanently impair her powers or her ability to touch by making it worse."

"Hank?"

"Dr. Henry McCoy. His friends and colleagues call him 'Hank'. He's also kind of difficult to miss. Like Kurt he's blue, but Hank doesn't look like a demon. He looks more like…like a gorilla. Don't let his outside appearance fool you. He's really a softy. He's one of the instructors here, the only one you haven't met thus far. He likes to talk with technicalities and poetry. His codename is Beast. His outward appearance was the result of a chemical accident trying to suppress his mutant powers. He always looked different but not like this. He also has increased strength, agility, and speed, as well as superior intelligence."

"Are there any other instructors here that I should know about?"

"Jean Grey is the big sister figure and is a telepath and a telekinetic, while also extremely powerful. While Charles would never go into your head unless you asked or it was absolutely necessary, Jean doesn't exactly have that degree of control. Obviously if you think a thought at Xavier, he would pick it up too, but when Jean has one of her power surges, nothing can keep her out. She's only had one major one, aside from when they first manifested, but when she's asleep sometimes she will creep into people's minds. She doesn't have a codename yet, and goes by her real name in battle. Like I said, she's my girlfriend. Jean and I are going to college while we instruct here.

"Just like Jean and I are going to college her, so is my little brother Alex, or at least he will. He's had to drop out due to problem with his powers. He has blond, kind of shaggy hair, and dresses like the poster child for American Eagle. His powers don't work on he, and mine doesn't work on him. His powers are just like mine, but they're more uncontrollable and channel through his hands. His codename his Havok, with good reason. He likes to cause chaos around here. I guess that's how he fit in so fast after he came. He used to be a surfer in Hawaii, and was going to go pro, but his powers made that impossible. Just when he thought he was in the go, he lost control. He's only a year younger than me. He's going to be an instructor, but he turned down the offer temporarily thinking it wouldn't be fair for him to teach the younger students to control their powers when he's so out of control himself.

"That's all of the instructors. I guess you want to hear more of the students now?"

Lorna blushed, "Only if you really truly don't mind."

"I don't, but you're back will mind if I talk for this long and you sit hunched over like that. Lay back. You don't need to see a chiropractor at 18."

Lorna did as she was told and looked up into a passing cloud; it was a pretty big cloud, and she decided to use it like a projection screen. Her eyes could print the images she was seeing onto the white fluffiness. Scott cleared his throat before he dived into another long explanation.

"I'm going to start with the Robert's. They are roommates. Roberto DaCosta is from Mexico. He absorbs the energy from the sun, like a human solar panel. When he's "powered up" he turns black with flames surrounding him. At that time he can fly as well as super strong and slightly invulnerable. He likes to pick fights with the others, especially Ray. I'll talk about him later. Roberto's codename is Sunspot. His roommate is Robert Drake, but most of us just call him Bobby. Bobby's codename is Iceman, because he can put a thin layer of flexible ice over his entire body which allows him slight invulnerability. He can project intense cold, turn the moisture in the air into ice, create ice bridges over which he and others can travel, and make little ice projectiles. He strives to learn new things, but his want to learn can exceed his abilities to actually pull it off. He often fails at the things he's doing, but he'll get right back up and try it again. He has become the unofficial leader of the New Mutants, which are now referring to as the Beta team, or B-team.

"I told you I'd get to Ray later and so I am. Ray Crisp is his name, and playing with electricity is his game. He can fire off intense electrical bolts. His codename is Berzerker. He finally revealed to Professor Xavier that he had a connection to a rebel mutant group near here, and offered information if we need it. Roberto and Ray have the same edge to themselves where they don't want to back down from a fight and absolutely never admit that they're wrong. Others have told him that he doesn't exactly have the personality of an X-man and should belong with the Brotherhood, but he usually looks at them and asks him who fights the good fight. It tends to shut them up pretty quickly.

"Ray's roommate is Samuel Guthrie. Sam is a little bit of a klutz, and he's a little timid around girls. He's from Kentucky. He can expel thermo-chemical energy that propels him with extreme force. In English? Sam can fly at superspeed and when he's in flight mode, he is nearly invulnerable, and can break walls, buildings, even put large dents in the ground, without much damage to his body. His codename is Cannonball. More than a little fitting.

"The only other guy left is Jamie Madrox. He has his own room because he's quite a crowd all by himself. Literally. We don't call him Multiple Man for nothing. He has the ability to duplicate himself with a hard impact. He often does it when tripping, falling, or getting hit with something. He is not only the youngest of the New Mutants, but he is the youngest of everyone at this school. Being the youngest he often feels left out among the rest of them.

"For women, we have Amara Aquilla whose codename is Magma. She can generate huge waves of heat, but can also control lava and volcanos. When she's super powered up she can look like she's made of magma. She can act a little arrogant at times, like a little princess, but she has a good heart and knows when to be down to earth. Her roommate and best friend is Tabitha Smith. Tabitha recently moved back into the mansion after leaving to join the Brotherhood. I'll tell you about them later. Tabitha is also called Boom-Boom. Tabitha can create small explosive charges, but she can make them smaller or bigger, or delay/speed up the explosion time at her own free will. Tabitha is rebellious and has a massive authority complex. While she enjoyed her time as a true free spirit, she missed seeing her friends all the time and missed having the opportunity to pull more pranks. She's a tried and true troublemaker, but she has a good heart when it comes down to it.

"Like I said before, we gained Tabitha back, but we also recently acquired two others we had lost back. Their parents pulled them out when things started to get ugly, but they soon realized that they were safer here, rather than at home where more things can hurt them. Those two are roommates now. The first one is Jubilation Lee, Jubilee for short. It also doubles as her codename. She can shoot off energy that often takes the appearance of fireworks. Her powers are more fun than dangerous, but don't underestimate them. She is extremely overconfident and likes to prove herself but often ends up getting herself into more trouble than it's worth. Her roommate is Rahne Sinclair. Rahne is Scottish, and her codename is Wolfsbane. She can change into the form of a dog, and sometimes do a half human, half dog look. Her personality is very much like a wolf or a family dog. She's extremely loyal and will be the first to jump into a fight if her family or friends or place of living is threatened. Her outer appearance is very frail and she's shy and quiet as well.

"We also have a few outsider connections that haven't officially joined us yet, but look promising to the future. The first would be a very good friend of Kitty. Her name is Danielle Moonstar. Kitty and Dani have taken to calling her Mirage. She can project a person's greatest fears and make it seem as if they are happening. Obviously all in the mind, so with that she also brings a few other minor telepathic abilities. She seems to focus more on the subconscious mind than the conscious one, like most telepaths out there.

"The second would be a man named Forge. He doesn't tell us his birth name and we don't need to know it all the same. He likes to be called Forge, and even his parents called him that when he was younger. If you ever want to know the story of Forge just go ask Kurt, because he is very involved in the story and Kurt is one of Forge's best friends and vice versa. It's quite an interesting story, but it's pretty much that Forge is a teenager from the 80's and was stopped from aging for a time. He eventually got out and the rest is history. His powers are he's a super genius with mechanics and computers. He often helps us out when we have mechanical issues with transportation or Cerebro, and developing mutant powers. His devices seem to help.

"Third is Angel. His real name is Warren Worthington III. He used to be a vigilante, but Magneto turned the people against him."

"Magneto?"

"Yes. He has since stopped with helping the public and was offered a spot her. He has declined the offer, but he knows it's a standing invitation. His power is wings that enable flight. He often helps us with funding, so we don't have the government cracking down on us. Obviously, having this many growing mutants in a house can cause damage and costs money that we don't necessarily have. We do get some help from the government, and Xavier having a long line of money behind him helps, but having a mutant multi-billionare couldn't hurt either.

"Only Logan sees the next person, as she is very timid and has had a quite haunting childhood to say the least. She looks at Logan as a father/brother figure. X-23, now going by the name Laura Kinney, helps with missions that require a spy. She's very good at what she does. She has learned control on her rage, and doesn't kill many people anymore. I know what you're thinking, but coming from her that's a great step in the right direction. She is a female clone of Wolverine so she possesses all of his powers with the healing factor and bone claws and enhanced senses. Only her claws are coated in adamantium however, not her entire skeleton.

"The last one of our outsider connections that I can think of is Spyke, real name: Evan Daniels. He's Storm's nephew. He used to be one of us."

"What happened?"

"Sometimes even in a group of freaks one can still feel like more of a freak," Scott sighed, and rubbed his eyes. Lorna laid her head on his shoulder. "I guess it makes more sense to say he just outgrew us. He felt like he was better used elsewhere. He felt like the Morlocks is where he was supposed to be. The Morlocks are a group of rebellious and undisciplined mutants that are too unsightly to pass as normal on the surface. Spyke could shoot bone spikes from his body, but then he started to go through some changes. He started to grow plates over his body. He decided to stay with the Morlocks after they helped him after he was poisoned. Don't even ask. Waaaay too long of a story. Anyway, he became a sort of guardian for them when they got into trouble. He's fearless, too fearless. He doesn't care how much trouble he gets in. we ran into his after he joined them twice. The first time he had grown plates over half of his body and his bone spikes now got hot on the ends, like they were on fire. The second time was so Ororo could give a status update to his parents.

"Being who we are we also have quite an arsenal of enemies out there. Our most prominent enemies would probably be the Brotherhood because they strike without really any prior planning. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants is run by a mutant called Mystique. She was Rogue's foster mother and Kurt's biological mother. A little warning? Don't talk about their mother with them. Kurt's mostly okay with it as he is trying to reconcile a little with her, but Rogue is WAY more reserved and cranky about the whole thing. Mystique is a shape shifter. She's also a really badass fighter, and immune to telepathy. She used to work for Magneto, but then she went rogue from him. She recruited all kinds of mutants for him, but then separated. No one knows if there's a secret connection between them now or if it's all really severed, but we're keeping our eyes out. Chances are, if Magneto's looking for you, here would be the first place he would think to look and he could use the Brotherhood to do it. Mystique is easy to spot when she's in her natural form because of her bright blue skin and yellow eyes.

"In the field, the one _we_ look at as the leader is Avalanche aka Lance Alvers. Though another member was told he was field leader, Lance is the one that really tends to get the job done the way it is supposed to. Lance also joined us for, oh, about a week so he could be near Kitty, whom he is currently dating. I know, strange. Lance has limited geokinesis, which means that his ability to manipulate seismic waves gives him limited ability to control the earth. He seems to be less motivated to be a villain than the rest of them, and does it because of his rebellious personality.

"Then there's Toad, also known as Todd Tolensky. He has quite a few abilities like superhuman agility, flexibility, leaping, prehensile tongue, adhesive mucus, and wall crawling. He is often depressed and was at one time suicidal due to the bullying he had had his entire life, but he takes it out with his mouth more than violence. He's not a super strong threat in battle, but he could still get a hit or two in before he's taken out.

"Where Todd is you can usually find his good friend Fred Dukes with him. Fred is also known as the Blob and you'll know why when you see him. He has superhuman durability and gravitational mass allocation. He's a big guy with an even bigger heart, but don't laugh at him or he'll become extremely enraged. He is one teenager you do not want mad at you. He used to have a crush on Jean, and I think he still has a little soft spot for her, but he has since moved on and begun to look at her like an enemy.

"Then you have the twins: Pietro and Wanda Maximoff. Pietro calls himself Quicksilver. His powers are superhuman speed, enhanced durability, and speed physiology. He is extremely arrogant and loves to abuse his authority. Though originally having no feelings toward his sister, he has grown to her and she to him. His sister is known as the Scarlet Witch. Wanda's powers allow her to "Hex" anyone/anything in her path. The "Hex" causes everything to turn against her enemy/foe like bad luck, and more, even causing things to explode. Wanda also seems to be able summon up telekinesis and more in her favor. She has also shown an ability to paralyze another mutant's powers or cause them to go out of their control. Wanda was very troubled, but then Magneto ordered Mastermind to mess with her mind and she's back to a more normal state of mind. Obviously she is still messed up, but she's closer.

"That does it for the Brotherhood. You know the Acolytes so I guess I don't really have to explain those. If you need more information on them, don't hesitate. You know how dangerous they can be. I will tell you who the Acolytes consist of at this point to make sure it sounds the same as you remember. There's Piotr Rasputin aka Colossus, Victor Creed aka Sabretooth, Remy LeBeau aka Gambit, St. John Allerdyce aka Pyro and their leader Erik Lehnsherr aka Magneto. Does that sound about right?"

Lorna nodded her head and turned to look up at Scott as best as she could. His left arm had found it's way to hold her close to his body and she didn't want to change that, no matter how bad her right mind was screaming at her, "Can we stop for now? I'm sure things will come up later no matter how much you tell me. I'm just getting tired."

"Of course. Dinner should be starting soon and I just know everyone is dying to meet you."

_Oh joy._ Lorna thought rolling her eyes. Apparently Scott saw because he nudged her a little.

"Hey, it won't be that bad. You don't have to tell them a thing that you don't want to. They're just curious. Every time we get a new mutant they're always different and they never seem to stay."

Lorna unintentionally snuggled in closer to Scott's chest and he felt his heart skip a beat, "I'm planning on staying a little while. At least now I know somebody who isn't judging…too much."

He tried to sit forward and Lorna sat up, clearly aware of him trying to sit up. He cupped her chin with his right hand and brushed a few stray green hairs out of her eyes, "At all, Lorna. At all."

**What did you think? Do you think dinner should go smoothly or proceed in chaos? Please tell me!**


	5. What?

**As you all know, this is Scott and Lorna's side of the story. Jean and Alex also have a side to this story. That side will be published soon, so if you're curious as to what was going through their heads as this all starting going down, check it out. It will be called "The Line is Crossed". I'll let you know when it gets published. Introductions pt. 2 will happen a little bit later. It's not going to happen right away. Forgive me. That part of the story should be a little fun, but I thought that I should get Scott and Lorna a little closer to each other and Scott and Jean a little farther away. REVIEW AT THE END, PLEEEEEEEASE! Thanks!**

Scott held the door open for Lorna as she walked in. Jean ran up to Scott and Lorna, "Hey! Kurt's been looking all over for you guys!"

"Why Kurt?" Scott asked.

Jean smiled with sympathy, "Well, he's more looking for Lorna, but he's hoping he could catch you two doing something you "weren't supposed to be doing". I'm afraid you're going to be a celebrity around here for a while, whether you like it or not. I'm sorry Lorna. We can only rein them in so far."

Lorna looked over at Scott, and he smiled reassuringly at her, "It's not like I can do anything about it so I guess it will have to be okay. Oh, and I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier."

Jean looked taken aback, but her perfect smile got even bigger, "It wasn't you're fault. I need to work harder on blocking thoughts out."

Both women were happy, and Jean grabbed her hand and pulled her over to the loveseat to talk to her about whatever was on her mind. Scott stood there for a couple of minutes watching his girlfriend and his...his new friend talking. Then Kitty came in, running at nearly full speed into Scott.

"Hey! Where's the fire?"

"Dinner's ready," Kitty smiled with that mischievous glint in her blue gems of eyes.

"Kitty..." Scott warned.

"Don't worry. I won't , like, do anything...yet."

Scott walked over to the two young women and tapped his girlfriend on the shoulder, "Hey Jean. Lorna. Dinner's done. Better get there before Kurt does or there will be nothing left in the mansion."

Jean walked right in, but Lorna hovered back. She followed behind Scott like a lost puppy waiting for the lead. Scott looked back at Lorna and saw how unsure she was.

"You'll be fine. They're more bark than bite."

"That's what I'm afraid of. Bite I can handle. Bark is a little more trouble."

Scott sat down at his seat (sorry to interrupt the story, but the seating arrangements are at the bottom of the story. If you're curious or like to know order to make sense, take a look). Jean look his right hand and smiled at him, though she had a look in her eyes that made a pit grow in his stomach. It didn't feel like she was looking at him. Like she may have been looking at him physically, but she was seeing something – someone – else.

Scott looked over at Lorna and urged her to sit down next to him. She complied. Almost as a great flood, young mutants filled the dining hall with meaningless chatter and curiosity clinging to every molecule. The chatter died down and soon every eye at the table expect those belonging to Jean and Scott were staring at Lorna. Lorna sank back in her chair and gulped. Attention was the last thing she wanted.

She saw Professor Xavier wheel into the room with Storm, Logan, and Hank. When everyone was at the table where they were supposed to be, Charles smiled warmly at Lorna before looking at the rest of his student body and then beginning.

"Everyone at this table is different. That is part of what makes life worth living. The diversity. There are times in our lives as we all know that certain situations will come about where you and someone else will be facing the same thing at the same time. Jean and Scott came here at about the same time in their lives. They had to face being the only two here at the time. The rest of the team that came, mainly Kurt, Kitty, Rogue, and Evan, all had to face coming, but you all came in such a short span of time no one really gave any thought. The New Mutants also all came here at the exact same time. All of you new. All of you afraid. Now you have all settled in and you're used to the routine of the mansion.

"A human being isn't naturally open to change. That's why change is such a big deal. Our bodies naturally repulse the thought. We are also curious beings. That is why you are all so curious at the arrival of our new student.

"Yes, Lorna, I'm talking about you. No need to feel embarrassed. The point I'm trying to make is we were always a rather tight group here. We have had people come in by themselves, but all of those people had known one or more of you. Lorna was tossed into this mix. Our tight knit group is trying to reform. I don't want our body here to repulse her like she is a virus. I want our body to try and connect with her, make her feel as if she belongs in this body.

"With that being said, I just want to remind everybody that pranks are never tolerated on normal circumstances, but it has come to my knowledge that a few of our students already have a couple up their sleeves. That is where I want you to leave them. Now, Lorna, would you like to say anything before we begin our supper?"

All heads swung toward her. The eyes that stared at her now were filled with more feelings and emotions than just curiosity. She saw understanding, pity, wonder, fear, joy, and love. That last one shocked her down to her core, more than she'd ever admit. The pity and fear didn't surprise her, but the others did, and that last one did it. Lorna, struck speechless, gave a little shake of her head. The professor must have understood because he declared that dinner was now underway.

Bowls and platters filled with food were passed around, but Lorna wasn't hungry. Scott tried to pass her a bowl to go around, but Lorna suddenly stood up and rushed out the doors. You would have thought Iceman had learned how to freeze time, because people were frozen with food halfway to their mouths, bowls half in one person's hands and half in the person they were passing it to, and picking up a fork that had fallen on the floor. Normal dinner motions frozen by one person getting up to leave.

In order to break the cold silence, Scott looked around the table and asked his brother to, "pass the butter?"

It must have worked because as one people started moving again and whispers began rising. Scott was in the middle of writing a mental note to talk to the professor after dinner but the professor beat him to it with a little mental message telling him to meet in his office after supper.

Dinner proceeded as well as it could in a room stuffed with mutant teenagers with the curiosity level higher than a cat. When dinner ended the students raced up the stairs, the boys disappointed when they realized they couldn't go down the girl's hallway without permission from Logan and Storm and they didn't have it, and the girls walking fast, but slowing down as they passed room 16. The room Jean and Lorna were now sharing.

Scott watched as Jean walked up the stairs slowly, as to set an example for the younger mutants, and then he went directly to the Professor's study. He found the Professor and Logan already waiting for him. Storm followed behind Scott.

"Hank will be monitoring the school this evening, so none of the mutants leave their rooms and try to find Lorna. Before you ask, Lorna is safe. She's in a cabin in the woods," Professor Xavier told his favorite student.

"Professor...you didn't ask me in here so you could tell me where Lorna ran to," Scott said sitting in a chair.

Charles sighed, "No, no I did not. I noticed that Lorna started looking toward you quite a bit when she was unsure. I was wondering if...if you knew anything that made her run out before she had gotten anything to eat."

Scott sighed and rubbed his eyes, "Look...please try to understand. It's not my place to decide what to tell you from Lorna's past."

"She told you!" Ororo exclaimed.

"Yeah. I told her my past, and she told me hers. I won't tell you her past without her permission. It's not my place. She told me some pretty deep stuff, stuff she knows about our...enemies, but I won't tell you. She's very traumatized by her childhood. She's has got to have one of the...freakiest stories I've ever heard, and that's saying something. If you want to know, you let her tell you. You let her come to you."

"What if she gave you permission?" Logan asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Then I would have to have her next to me, ready to censor anything I'm about to say. Like I said, it's her story and her right. Not mine."

"We understand Scott. Don't worry. Could you do us a favor?"

"Go and get Lorna."

Charles smiled, "Precisely."

"No problem."

Scott walked out and the minute the door closed the smile fell off of Xavier's face.

"Charles, what are you thinking?" Ororo asked coming to stand closer to him.

"I'm thinking that the emotional struggle I felt coming from Lorna, was anything but comforting. I'm thinking that we have gotten ourselves hip deep in trouble. I'm thinking that our students are going to be on the receiving end of a few surprises, for the good and the bad, within the next couple of weeks."


	6. Cabin of Broken Hearts

**Thank you to the two people who have put this story in story alert and the one person who has reviewed. Please do it again and tell me what you think of the story so far. Tell me if you think it's going too slow. I'd like to know before I continue. Obviously we all know what's going to happen, but it's a matter of how we get there that's the problem. TELLMETELLMETELLMETELLME!**

**I'm getting closer to publishing "The Line Is Crossed" so again, I'll let you know when that's published. Let me know a non-canon couple you would like to see in a story and I'll try to get it done. If you have a specific plot you would like to see or supporting characters in that story let me know. I'll write it, I promise. It might take a while though, because I mainly write my fanfictions when I have free time at school. That's why this story is so slow and I apologize for that.**

Scott walked through the forest, stepping over wet leaves and decaying branches, and trying not to fall flat on his face. He was suddenly regretting coming out here without checking where the cabin was. He could imagine Jean laughing at him if she was next to him right now; she'd laugh even harder when he fell on his face. Just when he was about to give up and try to retrace his footprints through the mud, he came into a clearing with a little cabin.

He opened the door and almost had his head torn off by a fork, clearly thrown by Lorna, "Lorna! Calm down! It's just me!"

Lorna felt a huge pang of guilt within her chest, but that wasn't going to make her crack for him, "I don't care Scott. Go away. I-I just want to be alone."

He stepped inside and shut the door, "You've been alone your entire life. Why don't you try actually letting someone like you for a bit?"

"Because it's always the same. Someone wants to be friends with me until something about me repulses them. I'm tired of trying. I'm tired of worrying about it. Just leave Scott. You will anyway. Get it over with before it really hurts," Even though Lorna would never voice out loud how much it would actually hurt if he walked out that door.

She didn't have to voice it. Scott already knew, from years of people leaving him behind because he was different. He wouldn't let himself do that to anyone else, especially someone who had already experienced enough pain in her life to fill thirteen lives.

Scott walked over to where he had heard her voice, behind the couch, and saw her sitting with her back to the couch, knees to her chest, and tears running down her face in long, wet streams. Lorna knew he was there even before he sat down next to her and took her in his arms. A sob escaped her lips and from then on she couldn't hold it back any longer. Lorna buried her face in Scott's chest and sobbed her heart out. Scott wrapped his arms around her and stroked her hair, mumbling soothing words to her. That just made her cry harder, knowing someone was actually there for once.

After a while, her sobs died down to little coughs, and the streams of tears to little drops. Lorna moved back just enough so she could see his face. Scott looked down at her and made the mistake of looking into her eyes. First he was captured by the beauty, and then he was captured by how broken she looked. How lost her eyes told him she was.

"What's wrong, Lorna? Why did you get up and leave?"

She choked on a sob before she answered, "Do you have any idea what it's like to go from a life where you've never seen such a thing as love, where you think the entire word is legend, but you move to a place where the room is filled with it?"

He was about to say that he did, but he really didn't. Even though the orphanage was terrible, he still had the memory of his mom, dad, and Alex to get him through it. He couldn't imagine a life without love, and he realized that's exactly what was happening to Lorna. A young woman who had never felt a speck of love toward her was now surrounded by it in a place that seems too good to be true. Even though she knows it's not what she's supposed to do, she's waiting for it all to shimmer away and for everyone to start hating her, thinking she's too bad to be here, just like everyone else.

Scott tightened his hold on her and kissed the top of her head, "Not every place in the world is as bad as what you've had. I know a lot of the world is hateful, and even more of the world is specifically hateful toward mutants, but Xavier's school is a place where there is no fear, or at least there isn't supposed to be."

Lorna buried her face in his chest again and sobbed as she said "You'll all leave me. You'll hate me and cast me out because I _am_ from that horrid place. You'll all think I'm an infection."

Scott let go of her so he could take her face in his hands and wipe her tears away with his thumbs. He held her face still as she cried some more so she could get a feel on his strength, a strength he was willing to lend her. Scott looked her dead in the eyes and had a feeling she was doing the same even though she couldn't see them through his glasses.

His heart clenched in his chest and he felt a weird pit in his stomach. He brought his forehead down so it was against hers, as was the tip of their noses, "I promise you that no matter what happens, no matter what the rest of them say, I will never leave you."

Lorna's heart skipped a beat, "You...you can't promise that. You-"

"Obviously I can promise it. I just did. A little thing you need to know about me," He tipped her chin up and brought his face down. "I always keep my promises."

"We'll see."

Scott brought his mouth down to hers and they both felt an explosion in their stomachs. Lorna's shock quickly faded and she wrapped her arms around her neck. Scott brought his hands down her arms and held her close. He brushed his tongue across her bottom lip and she gave him access into her mouth. Lorna moaned into his mouth, and that gave Scott the power to keep doing what he was doing, even though a voice screamed inside him that it wasn't right and Jean would be _pissed_ if she ever found out.

Lorna squeezed her eyes shut and held him close. Scott didn't want to hurt her feelings, Lord knowing they would be, but he pushed her away slowly. Scott looked at her and Lorna looked at him. They stayed like that for what felt like forever before he finally spoke, "Lorna..."

Lorna sighed and ran a hand through her mangle of green curls, "I know. It shouldn't have happened and it won't happen again. I can't say I wish it would be any different."

Scott felt his heart shatter. He didn't know why. Those words felt like a dagger in his heart and she looked unaffected as she said them. He had Jean though. Maybe Jean could take the pain away.

With his mind trying to distract himself from the growing empty hole in his chest, he stood up, dropping Lorna on her rear in the process. Scott walked outside and toward the mansion, not even sparing her a glance in his distracted state. Lorna stood up and watched him walk away, fading into the dark treeline. She shut the door and sat back down behind the old, ratty couch, trying not to cry.

Little did Scott know that those words had also broken her heart.

**Okay. Since I'm not getting any reviews, I think I'm going to start going a little slower on this story. I'd like to get it done, but I have school work and things for another website to do. If you'd like me to speed up a little bit, let me know in a review, but at this point, I'm slowing way down.**


	7. Run In With the Rogue

**Anyone who's read one of my stories before should know that I really don't do accents. I screw them up so bad I just ignore the idea. You know the characters. Use the accents as you're reading it. This is said because of Rogue playing a larger role in this story as it goes on. As Scott and Lorna are the leads in this story, and Jean and Alex are two obvious supporters, Rogue would be the only other major supporting role in this story.**

Scott walked up the stairs and Rogue was waiting at the top for him, "What do you want Rogue?"

Rogue rolled her eyes, "To talk."

"About?"

"Lorna."

Scott jumped away from her and Rogue rolled her eyes again, "Relax. I'm not Kitty or Kurt. I just want to know what the hell you did to her."

"How do you know her?"

"How do I know about her?" Rogue corrected. "I absorbed Magneto, remember? I found her inside his head. I wondered who she was, but when she got here, I finally knew."

Scott crossed his arms over his chest, "Why are you so concerned?"

"Because from what I saw, she wasn't treated very well, and the last thing that girl needs is someone she can't depend on and will hurt her more than she already is. No need to open old wounds."

"But why do you, of all people in this universe, care? Little miss goth."

That's when she got all sassy. Rogue crossed her arms over her chest, set her hips at an angle, and Scott knew he had said the wrong thing, "I care because, unlike some people, I show sympathy to those who come in here with a past. I know from personal experience that it isn't easy. She also seems like she'd be a cool chick to hang out with if she wasn't so caught up in her black bubble of depression. I even requested to the Professor that he put her in my room, but he was adamant that Jean room with her. The only reason I can think to describe that would be some ulterior motive, because he's never stopped rooming partners from switching before, unless it was opposite sexes of course.

"My only question would be why Jean? I know she's pretty nice, but she doesn't seem to like Lorna very much and vice versa. Professor Xavier also usually puts them in a room with someone with the same history, and someone like themselves. So why Jean? Jean is a little too nosy for her own good, active, goody-goody, and let's face it, she comes from a pretty nice background. At least financially and family wise. Lorna is quiet, lonely, and comes from a pretty rough background. I've heard of opposites attracting, but I don't think they had these two mutants in mind when coming up with that phrase."

Scott could only nod in agreement as he had been thinking the same thing all along. Why Lorna and Jean? "I don't know Rogue, and if I did, I would try to reason with the Professor, but Lord knows that's impossible when he has his mind set."

"Yeah," Rogue's face turned...sympathetic? No. That couldn't be right, could it? "Look. Being in the background scene for 99% of my time here has let me see a lot of stuff, most of it I probably shouldn't have but I was in the right or wrong place at the right or wrong time. I know a lot of other people's secrets that they would rather not have shared."

Scott was scared. There was no other way to describe how he was currently feeling. Scott Summers could honestly admit for the first time in a long time that he was scared. He couldn't let her know though, but he had a feeling she already did, "What do you mean Rogue?"

If possible, her face got even sadder, "A lot of shit is going to hit the fan within...a couple of weeks I would guess. There's no way this can hide for much longer. Just prepare yourself for it, because I have a feeling it's going to hit you hard and you won't know until its there."

"So you're saying I don't know about it now consciously, but somewhere in my mind I know about what's going down?"

"More or less. I don't think you know, but I don't think it will surprise you as much as anger you."

While Scott pondered this Rogue asked again, "What did you do to her?"

Scott narrowed his eyes, not that she could see through his glasses, "What do you mean? I didn't do anything."

"You must have. Whenever you're around, she's different. Still reserved, but in a different way. She seemed to look to you for everything, like you held all of the answers to the world. I want to make sure you didn't hurt her."

"Well, I didn't. I-I...I wouldn't, couldn't," Scott sighed and ran a hand through his brown hair. "Look, I'm sorry, but I would never hurt Lorna."

Rogue gave him a sardonic look and brushed past him, "That you could help Scott. That you could help."

**What did you guys think? Would you like to see more Rogue in this story or not? More Lott or Jott in upcoming chapters? Review! I need help!**


	8. Finally Belonging

**Thank you to the reviews I got for chapter 7. I really appreciate it. And a special thanks to Shejams for her writing improvement suggestions. I'll try to put them to the test here. I'm sorry if it doesn't work out so well in this chapter, but I'm still learning. I'm just so used to writing like a book in rather large paragraphs of screaming dialog and description; not so much short chaptered fan fictions.**

Speaking

_Thinking_

**Telepathic**

Lorna walked back into the mansion, completely dark now except for a few windows that were lit, probably by students cramming last minute for a test they had forgotten all about, and looked at the digital clock on the DVD player in the common room. It said 2:08. _Perfect._

Lorna walked up the staircase as quietly as she could to make sure not to awaken anyone. It wouldn't do her much more good to cause anymore trouble in one night. She stood in front of Room 16 for almost a full minute before using her magnetic powers to silently open the door, making sure the hinges didn't squeak. Lorna was just closing the door when the light suddenly turned on, filling the room with it's golden glow.

She squeaked in surprise and turned around as quick as she could and was left looking at a very tired Jean in bed.

"I'm sorry," Lorna whispered.

Jean shrugged, "No biggie. Just try not to stay out that late again. You were beginning to worry a lot of people."

Lorna's shoulders slumped, "I didn't mean about that."

Jean's eyebrows rose and she brilliantly said, "Huh?"

Gazing down at her feet as the toe of her right foot traced little patterns into the rug she said, "I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier. I know I apologized earlier for it too, but I still feel bad. There was no call for it."

Jean was speechless. Lorna took that as a sign to just get ready for bed. Lorna didn't have any pajamas so she just climbed into bed with what she was wearing. Jean looked at Lorna curiously for a moment before asking, "I guess you don't have anything to sleep in, so would you like to borrow something of mine?"

Lorna just stared at her roommate for a moment before asking, "You would…actually lend out your clothes to a stubborn, mean freak like me?"

Jean shook her head, "No. I'm offering to lend out my clothes to my new roommate, teammate, and hopefully friend."

Lorna nodded and Jean took it as a sign to grab an extra set of pajamas out of her wardrobe.

"Professor Xavier was telling me about a financial plan he was setting up to help out mutants that come here, like yourself, with really not money on them at all to by the essentials, let alone little things. He told me that your account came through. Each of us has one set up with the credit union near here for our allowances and for our parents to drop money into. Yours has more so you can get yourself settled."

Lorna stood up out of her bed and accepted the clothes from Jean, "Why?"

"Why set it up? Because everyone not only needs the things necessary to survive, but when someone doesn't have the ability to have things that show…themselves…they lose a piece of themselves. This is an opportunity for you to show yourself, us, and the rest of the world who Lorna Dane truly is."

The green-haired beauty pulled Jean's shirt over her head, "I've never been shopping before."

Jean smiled, a genuine friendly smile that held the beginnings of a lasting friendship and an unbreakable trust, "We'll have to fix that, won't we?"

Lorna and Jean both crawled back into their beds. Lorna looked over at Jean before asking, "Would you really do that for me?"

The question must have shocked Jean because it took her a moment to gather herself before she responded with a wry smile, "Of course. Contrary to popular belief, I'm not a total bitch. Sure, I have my moments, but everyone does."

Lorna laughed, a true laugh that felt good. She had never really done it before. She wanted to do more of it, "Some more than others."

Jean also laughed, "I guess we should come up with a bitchiness scale and rate ourselves on it, huh?"

Both laughed this time and no one spoke after that. The light went out and cool, relaxing darkness washed over the room. For the first time in her life, Lorna felt like she truly belonged somewhere and that she was actually wanted.

Sure that Jean was asleep, Lorna whispered, "Thank you for being my friend."

**I know it's short, but please forgive me on that. REVIEW!**


	9. Tests

**Okay, the last chapter was kind of pathetic. Please don't read and especially don't story alert without reviewing. I like to have feedback. I'm sorry for not updating in so long. Don't expect that to change at this point.**

Lorna woke up the next morning to the sounds of Jean getting ready. Lorna yawned loudly and stretched. Blinking, she saw Jean was smiling, "What?"

"I didn't think you would ever wake."

Lorna laughed dryly, "If you knew my history, you'd understand why."

Jean's smile faltered a little, "Well, I hope your schedule is open tomorrow, because we're going shopping."

Lorna gestured around the room, "What else am I going to be doing?"

Before Jean could answer a knock came at the door. Jean held up her finger in the international "one minute" gesture, and answered the door. Logan stood there.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I need to steal Lorna for some tests."

Before Jean could say anything, Lorna asked, "What kind of 'tests'?"

Logan smiled without humor, "All kinds of tests. Lets go."

Jean crossed her arms, "Well, she kind of needs to get dressed first." She then slammed the door in his face.

Lorna got out of bed and walked over to her wardrobe and then over to her dresser and began to dress. She folded up the pajamas she had borrowed, "I promise when I do laundry, I'll wash these too."

Jean waved a hand dismissively at her while she checked something on her laptop, "Don't worry about it. Consider them yours and one less thing you need on your shopping list come tomorrow."

Lorna was hit with a pang of shock, "T-t-thank you."

Jean looked up at Lorna with confusion, "You're welcome, but there was no need to thank me."

Lorna didn't bother telling her that there was and this was the first gift she had really ever received, let alone one that was generally helpful, "Where am I supposed to go?"

Jean slapped herself on the forehead, "God, I'm so stupid. I forgot you didn't know where to go. I'm assuming they're going to want to do some health related tests on you first, so that will be down in the med lab. Here. I'll take you."

Lorna followed the redhead through the winding staircases. She couldn't imagine how Jean could remember where to go, even though she had clearly been here for some time. Lorna was lucky to make it to their room last night. Eventually, they were in an elevator headed down when a high voice shouted, "Hold it!"

Jean immediately held it and whispered shaking her head, "Kitty."

Lorna's memory picked up something about Scott saying how Kitty can usually be found in trouble. She decided to keep her distance. Kitty came running in and almost straight into Lorna, "Sorry!"

Lorna shrugged it off. Kitty's eyes widened. Kitty looked over at Jean and Lorna saw Jean shake her head and fix the younger brunette with a hard look. Kitty pouted, but nodded. The doors opened again and Jean grabbed Lorna's arm to drag her off.

Jean pushed a button and the doors opened. Walking inside, Lorna looked around. Even in hospitals, she didn't think she had ever seen a place so sterile. Hank was working on something in a vial. Hank nodded toward Jean, and Jean walked out. Lorna suddenly felt extremely alone, not noticing how much comfort she was taking in the presence of her.

Hank smiled warmly at her, and Lorna noticed in his eyes that he thought Lorna was scared by his appearance. Not at all. To assure him, she stepped closer.

Hank's uncertainty was lifted just a small bit and her told her, "You can sit in a normal chair for this. This isn't a complete physical, at least not today. I just need a couple of vials of your blood."

She nodded and sat down, pulling up her sleeve, reading herself for the needle. That caught Hank by surprise. There were only a few people he had met in his life that didn't look scared with needles. One was Charles Xavier, another was Logan. The last one was a 13-year-old Scott Summers.

It only took Hank a few seconds to find her vein and begin filling up the vials. From there, it only took a few minutes to finish fixing her up. He nodded to her left, "You should eat. From here, you have to go to an exercise test, so you should eat something first. I don't want to be held responsible for you passing out."

Lorna nodded and looked to her left and saw two eggs, two slices of toast, three strips of bacon, and a small mound of hash browns. Next to the plate was a tall glass of orange juice. She hadn't eaten in three days and she hadn't had a meal this good since…ever. She grabbed a fork and dug in.

Hank looked up from examining something under a microscope, "Just leave the dishes. I can take care of them. Walk out this door and down the corridor until you get to the first hallway on your left. Then walk down about halfway and go down a corridor on your right and you'll find an elevator. Go down one level, that will be the blue button labeled '4' and go straight down. Hit the green button and wait to be called in. It's not just you that's being evaluated today."

Silently thanking the God she had found a few weeks after escaping the Hell that was her life for the photographic memory she had been blessed with she left and walked down the corridors he had told her. When she got to the elevator, she silently thanked Hank for telling her both the color and the number. There were green, red, blue, and white buttons, all with numbers ranging from 0 - 12. She wondered if she had just entered a mutant training version of Willy Wonka's glass elevator.

The hallway she was left getting off of was LONG. She saw, only after squinting, the number pad at the end of the hall she needed to press a button on. Getting there, she pressed the green button. It was scattered on a code pad of just as many buttons as the elevator, only she was sure that if she pressed the wrong one, she would die.

A voice jumped out from the air around her, and it was only from the smallest inkling of self-control that she didn't squeal and jump to the ceiling, "Lorna! To your right, there's a door. Get up here. Now!"

Logan's gruff voice scared her more than she would ever come close to admitting, and she prayed she wasn't the cause of his anger. Climbing up the stairs two at a time out of fear of being lashed out at for tardiness, she arrived at the top in record time. When she arrived at the top, Professor Xavier was waiting patiently with Ororo and Henry as Logan chewed out a young woman who looked Brazilian and rather ashamed and another young blonde woman who looked confident, a little too much. Annie and Theresa? No, no. Amy and Trina? Definitely not. Amara and Tabitha? That's it!

Lorna stood frozen, not sure where to go. She didn't have to wait long. The two teenagers walked out and the rest of the adults looked at her. Logan's gaze instantly softened, "Are you ready for this?"

She gulped, "Um…ready for what exactly?"

"To show us what kind of powers come with that green hair of yours." Lorna's heart jumped in her chest as Scott, whom she hadn't seen in the shadows, stepping into the light.

"You already know."

Scott smiled without humor, "The type, yes. The level of power, no. You see, we have teams here based on a few ideals. Experience, fighting skill, power level and skill, and team coordination. Today, we're going to test your fighting skill and power level and skill. Another day we'll test your team coordination and experience will depend on what you can tell us. Using what you already told me, I already have you ranked so you don't need to worry about saying something you don't want to."

Lorna just nodded and followed as Ororo led her behind a small screen so she could get dressed in a New Mutants uniform.

_This uniform is so uncomfortable and not very eye appealing. I hope we're allowed to come up with our own after this. This is absolutely ridiculous!_ Lorna thought as she looked at herself in a small mirror.

When Lorna came out from behind the screen, Scott tried to stop his jaw from dropping. Lorna was always beautiful, but that uniform itself looked hideous on her. A woman as amazing as her shouldn't be subjected to having to look like a cheap superhero wannabe.

Lorna walked down into the main area of the Danger Room and was told to get ready. Not knowing what to get ready for, she just put her guard up and expected anything, because knowing these people, even that wouldn't be enough. She was half right.

[20 minutes later] Sweat was running in rivers down her face and back, soaking her uniform. Exhaustion had been eating at her 10 minutes ago, but now as she pushed near her limits, she thought she was going to die. Blackness started fogging her vision as she fought to stay awake. If this is how the X-men normally fought, there would be no hope for her. She was weak. She deserved to die.

[same time] Scott looked down at Lorna fighting, and anyone with a brain could see that she was beyond exhausted. Why they were pushing her this far, he would never know?

"What are you doing? She could die!"

Logan fixed Scott with a stare, "Testing."

"Okay, okay, you've tested her! I didn't think testing meant killing!"

Logan growled, "Give her a little more time."

Scott was starting to panic. Lorna couldn't last much longer. Her skin was starting to turn green, and it wasn't from her getting sick. They'd all seen it before. If a mutant pushes themselves, strange reactions will happen. Lorna's must turn her completely green. Just then, Lorna collapsed to a heap on the floor, her unconscious mind still using it's powers, but it wouldn't be able to last for long.

Something inside of Scott snapped. He turned and blasted the Danger Room's control panel, the one that had Lorna at a level not even Logan could have survived. Then he blasted the door open and ran down to her. He was at her side in record time, picking up her limp body in his arms, and holding her close to his chest.

_Bring her down to the infirmary. Hank will take care of her. _The Professor sent the message into Scott's mind. He didn't nod any confirmation, but followed the obvious order anyway.

Logan, Ororo, and Charles were all watching Scott carry Lorna out of the wrecked Danger Room. Once the doors had closed, Charles pushed a button and all kinds of machines came out and started cleaning the place up. Charles turned around in his wheelchair and faced Logan and Ororo.

"What were you thinking? You could have killed her! We have never used that high of a level on anybody, let alone someone so young, let alone someone new here!" Ororo shouted at Logan.

He shrugged, "She handled herself good out there."

"Good? She was great! Amazing! Even more so seeing as how she isn't dead!"

Charles shook his head in exasperation. Sometimes they were more like children than the children, "If anything was learned today, we know her power levels and she has more skill using them than anyone could have imagined."

"We learned something else too Chuck."

Charles was caught by surprise, "Oh? What else have we learned?"

Logan looked Charles in the eyes and chuckled, "Isn't it obvious?"

When Charles and Ororo didn't respond, Logan sighed. It really wasn't that hard to see. Logan walked toward the broken panel and looked at it for a moment before responding, "Cyke's fallen in love with Lorna."

**What did you think? I'd like at least two reviews before the next chapter goes up. It may still be a little bit as I've gotten writer's block for the moment. I hope to hear some response as to how this chapter went.**


	10. Fight at Breakfast

**Sorry! I haven't updated this in _FOREVER_, but I have a huge list of good reasons that I don't feel like listing at the moment. That's not what this is for anyway. Enough of my chat. Let's get to the story!**

Scott sat by her bed in the infirmary looking down at her now peaceful face which was completely void of any trace of the green that had been present in the Danger Room. Any trace other than her usual green lips that is.

He heard the familiar rush of air that signaled when the doors had just slid open, but didn't see who had come in. That thought was realized when a blue, furry hand landed on his shoulder, "Scott, it's nearly 3 a.m."

A small part of him jumped at that realization, but the rest of him didn't care. He shrugged and stood to face Dr. McCoy, "Will she be okay?"

Hank nodded, "She should be fine by evening tomorrow. She'll be at dinner then. Since you don't go to school anymore, you _can_ come and visit her throughout the day tomorrow. You should go to bed."

The relief that had filled him when Hank had said she was going to be fine now dissolved into a cold pang in his stomach. "I promised her-" his voice broke, but he regained his control he had fought so long and hard for. "I promised her I wouldn't leave her, no matter what."

"You haven't. You won't. You're just going to go to sleep. I'm sure Lorna wouldn't want you hurting yourself just to stay by her side all night. Go to bed Scott. I promise _you_ that if something changes, you'll be one of the first to know," then Hank turned his back on the younger mutant and began checking monitors and recording results.

Scott walked out of the infirmary slowly, as if through water, and made his way up to his room. When he opened his door and turned on the light, he surprised enough to yelp when he saw someone was sleeping in his bed. After Scott saw who it was, he felt like a fool.

"Jean? Jean, what are you doing here?" he asked, shaking her shoulder, and feeling horrible for waking her up.

She yawned and sat up. Like Scott, she was still in her day clothes, "How is she?"

While he should have asked who, how she knew, or at least been surprised that she did, he didn't and wasn't. News travels fast in the mutant school, "Hank says she should be joining us at dinner tomorrow."

"Good. I guess I have no reason to stay here then," she got up and walked to the door. "Scott...I've been asleep in your bed since midnight and it's 3. Get some sleep or you're going to regret not doing so tomorrow."

After she closed his door, he obeyed her order, not even bothering to change out of his clothes.

Scott woke to the annoying blare of his alarm. It read 7:30 a.m. He shot up in bed and ran down the hall to the showers. _Damn it Jean! Why did you reset my alarm?_

After the quickest shower of his life he flew down the staircase and came to a sudden stop that almost had him falling onto his face in the dining area. He ignored the stares he was getting from the lingering adults at breakfast and sat next to Jean who was engaged in a conversation with Ororo. Taking the hint from the look on his face, Ororo rose and left the two of them alone.

Jean sighed and passed Scott a plate of food, which he bluntly ignored, "You're pissed at me for resetting your alarm, aren't you?"

He sat back in the wooden chair, "That's putting it mildly."

She rounded on him, "What was I supposed to do? Even with that you still only got four and a half hours of sleep, and if I know you, they weren't very restful though you were still sleeping."

Once again, he was touched by the caring nature that had drawn him to her years prior, but he still hissed at her, "You should have left it for me to decide my life, and not leave it up to you."

Jean shrugged, "Perhaps, but someone has to help you out. If you kept doing things your way, you'd have been dead years ago."

He looked away from her and down at the food, "Maybe that would have been for the best."

She slapped him upside the head, "Don't you even think that! Scott Summers, this team wouldn't be nearly as good as it is without you!"

Scott gave her a sidelong glance, "And I thought you were always complaining that it was _me_ who related everything back to the team."

"Regardless of the way I say it, the point still remains. This school, this faculty, this team, and this relationship need you."

Now he looked at her in full, "Are we still talking about my wishing I weren't here?"

Jean stood in a huff, not bothering to confirm or deny, and stalked past him.

He stuck a fork in his cold eggs and began to eat. That's when he heard a familiar gruff laugh, "What?"

Logan looked back at his newspaper and said with a small grin on his face, "Women."

**Review!** **I apologize again for the major delay in this story, and I don't know when the next chapter will be posted. I have the ACT this week and I'm scared to death for that. Wish me luck!**


	11. Introductions part 2

**I know, I know, I know. Bad bad me. I've been slacking in story updates again, but I promise I will try to get better. That's not saying I will, but that I will try. Now that that's taken care of, onto the story.**

Lorna awoke with a horrible headache and metallic taste in her mouth. It didn't appeal in the slightest. Repressing the urge to gag, she sat up slowly, knowing that if she did so too fast she risked passing out again or worse.

"You're awake! Good!" a blue gorilla looking man, Henry McCoy she remembered, said walking toward her. "It's nearly dinnertime. The others will be more than thrilled to have you join them."

She doubted this, but didn't object, not saying one word as he checked her over and over, making sure nothing would happen if she _did_ go upstairs.

"You look just fine. Go on upstairs. We're now a little late for dinner, but I'm sure that will be fine given the circumstances. Do you know the way?"

She wasn't sure she did, but gave a curt nod anyway. Lorna stood and walked out into the hall, ready to navigate her way through the multi-floored labyrinth that was the school. Eventually she made it up to the foyer, where she walked just a little way and through some more doors and found herself holding the attention of every eye in the dining hall.

Not known to Lorna, the Professor had warned of Lorna's arrival at dinner and told them all not to stare. They all complied one after the other. She looked for an empty seat and found one in between a young blond man and gothic girl with a white stripe in her auburn hair. She found food already on her plate; it was a saving grace since she wasn't exactly up for talking at the moment.

She found talking was something a lot of these people enjoyed when a young brunette with her hair pulled into a high ponytail gestured to get Lorna's attention. She was sitting across and a few chairs down the table from her, "Hi! I'm Kitty!"

Lorna nodded, hoping she could make it clear she wasn't in the mood to talk. The entire room was holding it's breath save for Kitty and Lorna. Kitty continued, either not realizing or not caring, "You're Luna, right?"

"Lorna," she mumbled back. It wouldn't have been heard normally, but the silent air of the room amplified any normal sound. She started hoping and praying that this girl would just leave her alone. No such luck.

"Oh! Well, hi again! You're hair is sooo pretty. So what can you do? Does it have anything to do with your hair? Like, any special skill there," she was smiling so big it was a wonder her lips didn't split.

Lorna realized that if she wanted to be left alone, they would need information, otherwise she would always be on the spot with people trying to see how much they could get out of her, "No, no special hair tricks. I was born this way."

Kitty's eyes widened, "That's so cool."

Lorna forced a smile she hoped didn't look as such, "Not according to the public...unless you're into that scene."

Kitty giggled and a few more joined in with nervous laughs. Lorna returned to her dinner. It was a dinner she decided later she would never wish to repeat.

"So what _is_ your power? You _do _have one, yes?" a blue demon looking boy sitting next to Kitty asked. I'm-"

"Kurt. Yeah, I was told," Lorna said, recalling the conversation earlier in the week and putting faces to name and names to faces.

Kurt smiled at being recognized, "So, what is it?"

"Magnetokinesis."

A silence fell over the room again. After a little bit, a young teenager spoke up down the table. Judging from the blonde who screamed the type of freedom only adolescence can hold she was sitting next to, Lorna put the name Amara to her, "You mean...like Magneto."

Deciding to get it all out in the open, Lorna took a deep breath and said, "Exactly like Magneto. He's my father."

There were a few intakes of breath and silence for the third or fourth time that meal took over. Lorna relished in it. She continued her delicious dinner until the girl next to her with the stripe whom she recognized as Rogue asked, "He didn't treat you very well, did he?"

Lorna looked into the other girl's green eyes and saw only concern and pain reflected in them. Neither spoke. Lorna just shook her head.

After that revelation, no one asked Lorna anymore questions. They all just joined each other in coversation and a few practical jokes that were almost stopped as soon as they started. If this was typical in the Xavier Institute for a meal, she considered leaving just on that basis. Giving a sidelong glance at Rogue and then across at Scott, she decided she wouldn't.

The meal commenced and finally came to an end with people starting to get up and leave. Lorna was stuck in the familiar humiliating bubble of not knowing what to do next, but she decided to follow what they were doing. She stood and walked out the same door she had come in, heading toward the stairs so she could go to her room.

That's when the blond boy, man now that she got a closer look, stepped into her path, "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

She was about to object and run to her room when something caught her eye. On his shoe was a symbol for American Eagle outfitters. Then she remembered Scott telling her that his brother, Alex, was like a poster child for them. Then she thought that if Alex was anything like Scott, she could trust him enough to give him two minutes of her time.

He led her to a secluded area of the mansion so as not to be disturbed. He turned to look at her and asked, "How are you liking the Institute so far?"

She shrugged, "Everyone seems nice, but it's a lot to adjust to."

He nodded, "I can imagine."

_No you can't, unless you're Stephen freaking King._ "Yeah, but I expect it will get better."

"It did for me when I got here," Alex rubbed a hand on the back of his next. "Look, I know it's really sudden and everything, but...I'd like to take you out...you know, on a date."

She was taken aback. Her mind both went into overload and when blank at the same time. It took her a moment, a moment that left Alex looking even more nervous, for her to get her bearings back. She was going to tell him no, but, "Sure."

His eyes lit up and she cursed herself, not knowing why she agreed. She didn't want to go out with anybody. Well, maybe one somebody, but he was taken and had no interest in little psycho Lorna.

"Great! I'll take you out to dinner tomorrow then? 6:30-ish?"

She nodded and let him go. Once the door to the room was closed, she sunk to the ground and buried her face in her arms.

_What have I done?_

**Review please! Just a small one!**


	12. Holding the Pieces

****A huge thank you to xmen4life, who is keeping this story going at this point. I was about to take a break, but I decided not to when a review suddenly popped up. Thanks!****

Scott was sitting on his bed, going over fight scenarios, when his brother came in with a smile on his face, "What's got you so happy?"

"Oh, nothing. I just got a date with none other than Lorna Dane," Alex did a mock bow.

Scott just sat there in shock for a moment. Lorna seemed hardly emotionally ready for dating, but if she wanted to, wasn't that her choice? He honestly didn't know. Alex caught on to his brother's expression, "What? Is it really that impossible that someone is willing to go out with me?"

Scott shook his head, "That's not it little bro, it's just...she's so distant and rather...scared of other human contact. Do you really think dating her this soon is a good idea?"

Alex smiled again, "Maybe a little human contact is exactly what she needs."

Scott disagreed, but wasn't going to put that big of a hole in his brother's happy bubble. He looked estatic, "Alright, but you're too happy right now for my liking. It's poisoning the dark atmosphere of my room. Get out."

Alex laughed, "Maybe you need to start dating again."

Scott's head shot up, and he said in a sharp voice, "I have a girlfriend, thank you, and I'm sure Jean understands that I can't always spend my Friday nights at a bar buying burgers and fries when I have a team of mutant teens to keep alive."

Alex looked a little hurt, but even more like he was used to it, and that's what hit Scott. Was he always this mean? "You do know that you have to allow yourself to live to keep yourself alive, right?"

And with that, he walked out, leaving Scott wondering just how much truth was in the words. After a moment, an anger he couldn't associate with anything or anyone, hit him in the stomach, causing him to throw his notebook of notes across the room.

He laid back, trying to calm his mind. He thought of Lorna and how well she had controlled herself at dinner tonight, even when it was clear she didn't want to be included. She would fit in eventually.

He thought of Alex and how happy he had looked when he had announced he had gotten Lorna to go out with him, but it _had_ looked a tad forced. Hell is Scott knew why.

Then there was Jean. His girlfriend, best friend, teammate, co-worker, and much more. Why did he feel as if something was wrong? Why did he feel like the connection wasn't there anymore? Had it ever been?

Scott fell asleep trying to fit the pieces of the puzzle together, unknown to him that he was trying to fit pieces together from many different puzzles.

**Review please! I would highly appreciate it!**


	13. Dated and Dumped

**I am sooo sorry to anyone who is still reading this story for not updating in so long. You all are amazing! I've decided to make this chapter a little longer for all of you as a thanks for sticking with it. **

**In other news, I've decided that I'm not going to do Jean and Alex's side of the story, mainly because it has taken me so damn long to get this story up. I promise that I'll work on another story for them at some point though!**

Lorna had subjected herself to the silence of the room she shared with Jean all day long, knowing that Jean was working with Charles on something telepathy related. It was nearly 6:00 p.m. and her date with Alex would be starting in a little over a half an hour. She was dreading it.

A knock at the door startled Lorna out of her thoughts and Jena poked her head in, "Hey."

Lorna nodded, "Hey. I thought you were working with the Professor?"

"I was, but we finished up much faster than anticipated," Jean smiled, pulling her hair back into a ponytail. "What's up?"

"I, um...I'm...hiding," Lorna blushed.

"Hiding?" Jean asked. "From who?"

"Everyone.

Jean's gaze softened, "Because of dinner last night."

"Not so much that as the date I have to go on in a half an hour."

Jean looked startled but still happy, "Date? Who with?"

"Alex Summers."

The silence that covered the room at that moment coated the air like a poisonous gas no one wanted to be in the presence of. Jean's mouth was hanging open and she actually looked hurt, though Lorna couldn't figure out why. Then Jean shook her head as if to clear it of the negativity and smiled at Lorna, though this time it was more forced than anything, "That's fantastic! Do you know what you're going to wear?"

Lorna smiled back, "Not yet. Besides, my selection is kind of limited."

Jean laughed, "Look again."

Confused, Lorna opened the door to her closet and opened it, only to be hit with the scent of fresh clothes and bright fabrics. Her eyes filled with tears as she faced the older mutant, "How?"

"I told you we'd go shopping, but when you were put in the infirmary I thought you might need a little pick-me-up. Besides that, I thought you'd want them sooner rather than later and it saved you the trouble of having to deal with the other girls of X at the mall. Why? You don't like them?" Jean's brows furrowed in concern.

Lorna stood and hugged her as she let her tears fall. After a brief hesitation of surprise, Jean hugged her back. When Jean pulled back, she saw the green haired beauty gazing at her with a look short of adoration, "What?"

Lorna looked away, "Why couldn't my sister have been more like you?"

"Because your father put her in an asylum and she's not a very nice person."

Lorna sighed, "I know, but I can still wish."

"Hey!" Jean put her hand on the shoulder of the younger girl. "I'll still be here. Now, about what you'll wear."

* * *

><p>Scott walked down the staircase and saw his brother looking up at the girl's side, "Hey bro! Lorna a 'no show'?"<p>

Alex shook his head, "Nah! She's still got five minutes before she's technically late."

At that moment, Jean came walking out of that side and down the stairs as well, "Lorna's coming. She won't stop fussing with her dress."

"Can't blame her, can you? She doesn't exactly seem like the dress type," Scott remarked.

Jean just grinned, "You'd be surprised."

The three continued to talk for a small while in such depth that they almost missed Lorna walking in wearing a gorgeous purple strapless dress that fell to her knees and matching shoes.

Almost.

Scott felt his heart jump into his throat at the sight of her. She was absolutely stunning. With a stab to the heart he remembered she was Alex's date.

Who was Scott trying to kid? He knew he liked Lorna. Probably more than liked, but he wasn't willing to admit that yet. He wanted to protect her from everything and everybody, even if that included his baby brother.

Alex offered his arm and Scott could for the life of him understand how Alex wasn't trembling while he did as much. Jean elbowed him in the side and he looked at her, seeing the gaze she produced he flinched. If looks could kill.

It took a moment for Lorna and Alex to leave, but once they did, Jean rounded on a prepared Scott, "What the hell was that? You were staring at her like she was a popsicle or something! She was your brother's date!"

"I know, I know. I'm sorry. She was just..."

Jean rubbed her temples, "Look, I've got a Danger Room session to lead. I don't have the time nor the energy to argue with you. Just don't do it again. What are you going to do tonight?"

"I-I-I..." Scott stammered. "I have some field work to do."

Jean shot him a look that would have cracked his heart had he still been in love with her. He knew she knew he was lying, but he didn't feel any remorse about it. Besides, he wasn't completely lying. He was going out into field.

Jean ran up the stairs, tears visible on her face, and Scott felt the first pangs of guilt. He wouldn't let that stop him now. No matter how wrong it felt in his gut, he was going to spy on his brother and crush.

* * *

><p>Alex got out and held the car door open for the young woman with green hair. They walked inside together, but Lorna knew in the pit of her stomach it didn't feel right. She couldn't even kid herself as to why. She knew why. She wanted to be there with Scott.<p>

Their meal progressed in a blur of nearly silent motion. Clearly, neither wanted to be there, but that wasn't picked up on by the other party. The food was good in the way only food as expensive as a new car can be, but it wasn't awe inspiring. That only added to Lorna's growing dismay.

As they stood to leave, completely oblivious to the obvious fact they were being watched from the large picture window by a man with red shades, Alex reached out to grab Lorna's hand. They walked out together after Alex paid a horendous bill.

Just before they got inside of the car, Alex put a hand on it to prevent it from opening, "Look, Lorna. As much as I loved going out with you, I don't think we should do this again. I felt...no...connection between us. You understand, rigiht?"

Understand? Of course she understood. It was yet another rejection for the young woman, "Of course, but if you don't mind, I'd rather walk back to the Institute."

His eyes looked fearful, "No, no, don't do that. The Friends of Humanity could be out. They'll skin you alive!"

"I can take care of myself."

And she walked away from him, tears stinging her green eyes, as her heart ached with the need to be loved.

* * *

><p>Scott looked at the scene and from the way they were standing, Scott knew Lorna was being dumped on their first date. He felt a surge of fury wash over his body. He watched his brother get into his car and take off back toward the mansion, not even stopping to welcome Lorna into his car again.<p>

Scott got into his sports car and took off toward the gorgeous magnetokinetic. He pulled up next to her and shouted, "Lorna!"

She whipped around to look at him, "Scott?"

"Yeah," he smiled at her. "C'mon. Get in."

Lorna averted her eyes, "I'm not ready to go back just yet."

"Who said anything about going back? Hurry up and get in before I catch a cold. There's a breeze tonight."

She muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'baby', but got in nonetheless, leaving a smile on the young man's face. He drove them over to a small park no one used anymore, for the playground was on the park on the other side of the city and parked the car in the tiny parking lot.

"Where are we?"

"You'll see."

Filled to the breaking point with curiosity, it was all Lorna could do not to tackle him and demand answers. She got out of the car and followed him down a trail that had long since been covered in vegatation. It's a wonder Scott still knew it was a trail. Scott helped Lorna up over fallen trees and even picked her up bridal style so he could wade through a small river. Lorna protested the entire time, but he would hear none of it.

It was obvious that they went off of the trail after a bit of time as the trail got appropriately more rough, but Scott would still not listen to her pleads to let her walk by herself.

When they got to a certain spot in front of some vines, Scott pulled a black bandana out of his back pocket and tied it around her head to cover her eyes. Normally, Lorna would have been scared to death, but she knew Scott would never hurt her, at least on purpose, "What's going on?"

"Patience!"

She smiled and let him lead her forward. When they finally stopped, Scott ripped the blindfold off. Lorna gasped.

They were in a clearing in the middle of the forest, but it was overcast with the leaves of large trees, much like the canopy in a rainforest. Another small stream ran to their right and the grass was the purest green she had ever seen, despite the obvious lack of sunlight.

"I thought maybe you would enjoy a little seclusion from the world for a while," Scott said, sitting down next to a blanket he had laid out for her to lay on.

She ignored the blanket, and the protest in his eyes that she not do what she was going to for fear of ruining her attire, and she pushed him onto his back, her hands on his chest, and laid down against his warm frame. Having her this close to him was doing interesting things to his heart rate, and he was sure she could hear it with her head laying directly above it, but she made no indication.

After a soft sigh, she replied, "This is perfect. Thank you."

Scott grinned, "I'm glad you're enjoying it. It was my favorite place to come after I first moved to Bayville. I was worried that it wouldn't be here anymore, but I thought it was worth the risk."

"So how many women have you taken here after a hot date, Summers?" she teased.

"Just you," he rubbed a hand over his forehead. "I've never really had very many girlfriends. Taryn didn't like to do much that didn't involve being around other people to show me off to, and Jean isn't very big on the outdoors."

"They're missing out. This is wonderful."

The two mutants talked and cuddled for a long time, neither knowing the exact number and neither caring much, but eventually, Lorna sat up and straddled Scott's waist. He was momentarily startled by their proximity, but it was because of how much he suddenly wanted to kiss her rather than being repulsed.

Her wild green hair had pieces of grass stuck in it, and the minimal amount of make-up she had been wearing, she had washed off in the stream before, leaving her with a refreshed appearance. She was beautiful.

Scott didn't look half bad either in her eyes. Lorna decided to tip the scales, knowing it was wrong because of his girlfriend, but not caring either. All she cared about was tasting him again. She leaned down and paused just before their lips would meet.

Scott gasped a little with her dipping her head, needing to feel her surrender into his arms again. He brought his mouth up the rest of the way and captured her lips in his. He wrapped his arms around her waist and flipped her so he was on top. She opened her mouth a little in the process and Scott took full advantage, deepening the kiss as much as he could.

Lorna wrapped her arms around his neck and continued kissing him. She needed him as much as she need air or water or life. He was her survival, and she was his. When he reached behind her neck with one hand and pulled her body even closer to his, she knew he loved her as much as she loved him.

The moan of pleasure that escaped her throat made his heart tighten and he groaned in response, exciting her more than she could have ever imagined. Though the more he tried to keep an image of his redheaded girlfriend away, the more she became his most predominant thought, only rivaled by the current love of his life whom he was kissing the hell out of.

He pulled back a little, allowing the kiss to level off and decline in it's intensity. She responded in kind, realizing that he didn't want to stop, only try to keep it slow.

They sucked on each other's lips and finally leveled off at just simply pressing lips together and kissing cheeks, eyelids, and noses. Eventually, and excruciatingly so, both opened their eyes into the faces of the other.

Scott brushed her cheek with his thumb and whispered, "We have to go back, love. I can't do this yet."

She nodded, not able to stop the prick of tears behind her eyes. Scott saw it and kissed her again, saying, "It's you I want and need, if you'll have me. I just need to..."

"break it off with Jean first?"

This time it was Scott's turn to nod. Lorna flicked his bangs with her forefinger and smiled, "Why wouldn't I have you? I...I...love you, Scott."

His heart nearly stopped beating. After a pause, he kissed her again, more deeply this time and responded, "I love you too, Lorna."

The smile she gave him in response would keep his world rocked for the next three days or so. He stood and helped her up, walking hand in hand back to the car...except for when he carried her through the forest again. This time, she didn't protest. She didn't want to stop being close to someone it had taken her a lifetime of hell to meet.

The drive to the mansion was a silent one, but the silence wasn't uncomfortable. Lorna's head was laying on Scott's shoulder as they drove onto the estate. Scott wanted to kiss her again as they pulled into the garage, but knew he wouldn't be able to stop if he did. Despite being in love with someone else, he wanted to be able to be as loyal to his current girlfriend as he could, especially after hurting her so bad this afternoon.

They walked upstairs together, not holding hands this time, as Scott wanted to talk to Jean right away and Lorna happened to share a room with her. She wasn't sure how excited she was at the prospect of living with her boyfriend's ex-girlfriend, but she didn't think Jean was the type of person to hold love against someone.

Scott knocked at the door, but no one answered. Lorna sighed, "Just go in Scott. It's my room too."

They opened the door and the sight that beheld them was part of an event all four parties involved were sure they wanted to forget and start a new after. In Jean's bed was Jean laying naked (though covered by bedsheets) with a naked Alex. Alex as in Lorna's boyfriend for the night and Scott's little brother Alex.

They were asleep, but when they heard the door slam, they jolted awake. When Jean opened her eyes, her face reddened and eyes widened, "Scott?"

Scott's face was hard and cold, ignoring his girlfriend on the bed and love standing next to him (who was ready to bolt to her bed any second and hide under the covers for fear of an impending fight). His full attention was on the blond who had made love with Jean.

"Explain."

**Yep, that's what you get. I hope it sort of makes up for being away for soo long. Please drop me a review and tell me what you think of what has happened or what you think will happen. Just saying 'I like this story' really does make my day.**


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